Austrian Airlines reports May 2008 Traffic

In May 2008, the Austrian Airlines Group's scheduled traffic achieved a passenger growth of 6.4% and a load factor of 75.1%, an increase of 2.3 percentage points on the previous year.

Due to the numerous national holidays in May this year, some of which fell in June last year, the scheduled segment tended to be driven by tourists rather than business traffic. Around 983,400 passengers were carried in May overall (scheduled and charter segments), a 4.1% increase on last year, with the total load factor also rising to 75% (2.5 percentage points more than in May 2007).

With an approximate total of 4.2 million passengers carried in the period from January to May (scheduled and charter segments), an increase was reported of 3.2%. At 73.8%, the load factor stood at approximately the same level as last year overall (-0.2 percentage points).

With passenger growth totalling 7% in the months from January to May, the short and medium-haul segment showed a significant increase on the previous year. Revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) on scheduled services rose by 8.9%, while scheduled capacity (measured in available seat kilometers or ASK) increased by 5.7%. The resultant improved passenger load factor of 66.7% was above the figure for last year, rising by 1.9 percentage points.

Around 769,000 passengers were carried by the Austrian Airlines Group in May, 5.8% more than in the comparison period in 2007. The traffic result measured in revenue passenger kilometers on scheduled services (RPK) rose disproportionately strongly, by 8.5%, while capacity (ASK) expanded by 4.3%. The passenger load factor in this segment, at 69.9%, was 2.7 percentage points above the comparable 2007 figure.

In cumulative terms, around 469,300 scheduled passengers were carried from January to May 2008 in the long-haul segment, a 15.4% planned reduction on the comparable period in 2007. While there was a structural reduction in capacity of 21.8% (ASK), revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) on these scheduled services fell by 22.2%. The passenger load factor in the long-haul segment was 80.7%, marginally down on last year, by 0.5 percentage points.

Passenger volume increased by 10.6% in May compared to the previous year, and the load factor rose by 1.7 percentage points reaching 80.7%. Scheduled capacity on long-haul routes (ASK) rose by 8.9% in May, while revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) were 11.2% up on the respective comparable figures for the previous year. The growth in ASK is the result of the Group’s incorporation of the Chicago route into its wider network (since 29 May 2007), which was not yet included in the comparison figures for May 2007.

Charter traffic succeeded in reporting a rise load factor both in May and the past five months as a whole. Around 362,000 passengers were carried from January to May on the basis of planned adjustments in capacity. The passenger load factor rose significantly in May compared to the same period in 2007, jumping by 3.1 percentage points.

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