The German airline Lufthansa announced that it transported a record number of passengers last year despite repeated strikes by pilots and cabin crew.
– The airlines of the Lufthansa group transported 107.7 million passengers in 2015, which is a new record, the carrier reported in a statement released on Tuesday.
The total figure represents an increase of 1.6 percent compared to the previous year.
According to data released yesterday, Lufthansa had more than one million flights in 2015, nearly the same number as in 2014. They also recorded a record aircraft occupancy of 80.4 percent, which corresponds to an increase in capacity utilization of 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous year.
– In recent years, the Lufthansa group has invested heavily in improving its offerings and services, the statement emphasizes.
As part of these efforts, 17 new aircraft were put into service last year, and the fleet will be supplemented by another 251 jet aircraft over the next 10 years.
– Additionally, travel comfort has been significantly improved by equipping cabins in all classes, enhancing services, and providing broadband Internet access. Thanks to these improvements, we have managed to significantly boost demand and convince a record number of customers to use the carrier services of one of our airlines, Lufthansa emphasizes.
It is worth noting that pilots and cabin crew organized several strikes last year as part of separate disputes over wages and retirement age, which resulted in “grounding” several tens of thousands of passengers. It should also be noted that Lufthansa owns Austrian Airlines and Swiss, as well as the low-cost carrier Germanwings. In March 2015, they recorded a terrible accident in the French Alps after the co-pilot directed the passenger aircraft on a collision course with a mountain, causing the death of 150 people.
