The FINANCIAL — By carrying an approximate total of 7.3 million passengers (scheduled and charter), the Austrian Airlines Group produced an increase of 0.7% in the period from January to August.
The overall load factor stood at the same level as last year, at 75.6%. In the scheduled segment, passenger growth of 1.8% was achieved: the planned reduction in passenger volume of 10.2% on long-haul flights was offset by a 9.2% increase in the number of passengers being carried in the Focus East regions (Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East).
According to Austrian Airlines, the overall load factor of the Austrian Airlines Group remained stable in August at 79.4%, a slight rise of 0.2 percentage points. A total of around 1.05 million passengers were carried on scheduled and charter services in August. This figure is 2.5% lower than last year, due to the economic recession. The company succeeded in achieving growth of 2.4 in passenger volume and an increased passenger load factor of 0.2 percentage points on the long haul routes.
Short- and medium-haul segment
From January to August, the company was able to report an increase in passenger volume in the short- and medium-haul segment, with a rise of 3.8% compared to the previous year. Revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) on scheduled services rose by 5.5%. The majority of this increase can be ascribed to the Focus East region, which grew by 11.5%. Scheduled capacity (measured in available seat kilometres or ASK) increased by 4.4%. The resultant improved passenger load factor stood at 67.9% or 0.7 percentage points higher than the previous year, in the Focus East regions the load factor stood at 69.4%.
With around 719,400 passengers carried in August, the Austrian Airlines Group recorded a fall of 3.5% compared to 2007. For the first time the weakness of the market also affected the Focus East region resulting in a passenger figure which fell by 1.1%. Capacity (ASK) expanded by 0.4%, the figure for revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) fell by 1.2% on these scheduled services. Due to longer average route length Focus East could reach a 2.3% higher RPK figure, however this was clearly below the yearly growth. The passenger load factor in the short and medium haul segment stood at 70.0%, or 1.2 percentage points lower than the comparable figure for 2007.
Long-haul routes
In cumulative terms, almost 800,000 scheduled passengers were carried from January to August in the long-haul segment, a 10.2% reduction on the comparable period in 2007, in line with the company’s restructuring plans. While there was a structural reduction in capacity on scheduled services of 14.6% (ASK), revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) on these same scheduled services fell by 14.8%. Accordingly, the passenger load factor in the long-haul segment remained relatively stable at 82.0%.
Passenger volume increased in August, by 2.4% compared to August 2007. In August scheduled capacity (ASK) on long-haul routes was 2.1% higher, revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) were 2.4% higher than the comparable figure for the previous year. As a result, the passenger load factor rose by 0.2 percentage points to 84.6%.
Charter segment with all time high passenger load factor of 90.4%
Around 957,300 passengers were carried from January to August due to the planned capacity adjustments, while the passenger load factor increased significantly by 2.7 percentage points. In August the passenger load factor was at 90.4% – reaching a record all time high of more than 90%.
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