Lufthansa passenger traffic rises; Finnair’s falls
Lufthansa (-1.8%) declined on Tuesday (09-Nov-2001) despite reporting a 6.4% year-on-year increase in sales over Oct-2010, with all traffic regions contributing to the strong sales growth. Load factor for the month rose 0.6 ppts, to 81.3%, with all subsidiaries reporting improved loads except for bmi.
- Lufthansa Passenger Airlines: 80.9%, +0.4 ppt;
- SWISS: 86.5%, +0.3 ppt;
- Austrian Airlines: 80.2%, +2.1 ppts;
- bmi: 72.6%, -0.1 ppt.
Passenger numbers for the group also rose for the period, gaining 6.2% year-on-year, to 8.5 million. Again, all carriers reporting improved passenger numbers except for bmi.
- Lufthansa Passenger Airlines: 5.6 million, +9.7%;
- SWISS: 1.3 million, +4.5%;
- Austrian Airlines: 990,000, +8.4%:
- bmi: 550,000, -20%;
Finnair load factor down 1.1 ppts
Conversely, Finnair (+0.4%) made a marginal gain, despite reporting a 1.1 ppt decline in load factor for Oct-2010, to 77.6%. Loads declined in all regions except for the Asia Pacific, thanks to recovering business demand.
- Domestic: 52.5%, -7.0 ppts;
- Europe: 65.9%, -4.2 ppts;
- Trans-Atlantic: 86.4%, -2.6 ppts;
- Asia Pacific: 85.9%, +1.8 ppts.
Passenger numbers were also down for the month, declining 1.6%, to 654,000. The fall was led by a decrease in trans-Atlantic passenger numbers, while all other regions witnessed a rise in passenger numbers.
More positively, cargo volumes rose 32% for Oct-2010 to 12,284 tonnes.
European carriers fined for freight pricing
Elsewhere, SAS (+1.9%) was one of the biggest gainers for the day, despite being one of 11 cargo carriers fined by the European Commission for co-ordinated action on surcharges for fuel and security without discounts over a six-year period between Dec-1999 and Feb-2006. SAS was fined EUR70.2 million. SAS stated it "strongly contest[s] the considerable level of the fines" and plans to appeal the decision to the EU's Court of First Instance, which may take several years. Other European carriers fined included Air France (-1.2%), KLM and British Airways (-0.4%).
Norwegian Air Shuttle (+2.8%) also made a strong gain for the day as the OMX Helsinki 25 index rose 1.8%. Ryanair (-1.5%) and Eurofly (-1.2%) declined.
Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 09-Nov-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Yahoo! Finance & Reuters