The Austrian Airlines Group achieved an average passenger load factor of 77.9 percent on its flights in September 2009. This was exactly on the figure for September last year. Austrian Airlines carried around 970,000 passengers, or 7.8 percent fewer than in September 2008. Passenger volume now seems to be slowly stabilising: the fall in August 2009, at 7.2 percent, was already at a similar level as the figure for September, while such monthly falls were still running in double-digits at the beginning of the year. Andreas Bierwirth and Peter Malanik, the members of the Executive Board of Austrian Airlines said the following: “It looks as if the passenger trend has now begun to bottom out. But it is quite certainly too early to be talking of a recovery."

In the third quarter, Austrian Airlines carried almost 3 million passengers. This is 8.8 percent fewer passengers than in the same quarter the previous year. The passenger load factor improved by 0.8 percentage point to 79.7 percent. The trend in the passenger load factor was particularly strong in Western Europe and the long-haul segment.

In the period from January to September 2009, passenger volume stood at around 7.6 million, 12.8 percent down on the figure for the previous year. The passenger load factor fell by 1.8 percentage points to 73.9 percent.

Short- and medium-haul segment

In September around 746,900 passengers flew with Austrian Airlines on short and medium haul flights. This is the equivalent of a 4.1 percent fall on the same month last year. The load factor fell slightly by 0.7 percentage points to 70.9 percent. While the passenger load factor on flights in Western Europe rose by 2.4 percentage points to 75.9 percent, this figure fell by 3.4 percentage points to 66.5 percent in Eastern Europe. We raised capacity measured in available seat kilometres (ASK) by 1.3 percent, and were also able to increase revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) by 0.3 percent.

In the third quarter, Austrian Airlines carried with around 2.2 million passengers 4.6 percent fewer passengers than last year. The passenger load factor grew by 1.4 percentage points up to 71.9 percent. The passenger load factor for Eastern Europe was 1.5 percentage point below the level for the previous year, at 70.2 percent. In Western Europe, by contrast, it rose by 4.7 percentage points to reach 73.8 percent. We reduced ASK by 1.7 percent, RPK rose slightly by 0.2 percent.

From January to September around 6 million passengers flew with Austrian Airlines. This is 9.9 percent less than last year. The passenger load factor fell slightly by 0.7 percentage points to 67.4 percent. The passenger load factor fell by 3.9 percentage points to 65.1 percent in Eastern Europe. In Western Europe, by contrast, it rose by 2.8 percentage points to 70 percent. We reduced ASK by 4.5 percent, and RPK fell by 5.5 percent.

Long-haul segment

In September, the number of passengers on long-haul flights fell by 16.8 percent, to 90,400. By reducing ASK by 18.3 percent, we managed to increase the passenger load factor by 3.5 percentage points to the high level of 86.1 percent.

In the third quarter, we carried 284,200 passengers, 16.5 percent fewer than the previous year. We cut back capacity by 17.7 percent, and increased the passenger load factor by 2.9 percentage points to 87.4 percent.

In the period January-September, 737,300 passengers flew with us. This is 20.9 percent fewer than last year. We reduced ASK by 17.2 percent. The passenger load factor fell by 2.1 percentage points to 80 percent.

Charter segment

In September, passenger volume was 19.3 percent down on the previous year at 132,600. In this segment, we significantly reduced capacity measured by ASK in September, cutting it back by 22 percent compared to the previous year.

In the third quarter Passenger volume fell by 20.9 percent to 471,300. We reduced ASK by 22.7 percent.

From January to September, the number of passengers fell by 23.3 percent to 860,700. This is almost exactly the same as the reduction in ASK of 23.1 percent.

Remark:
We have adapted our reporting system to the standards of Lufthansa. As a result, the September figures include so-called external capacities for the first time. These are passengers, booked by Austrian Airlines on flights of partner airlines within the framework of a Code Share Agreement.

Traffic statistics in detail
AUSTRIAN AIRLINES GROUP (Austrian + Austrian arrows + Lauda Air)
 

TRAFFIC STATISTICS	September			January - September			July - September
	2009	+/- % p.y.		2009	+/- % p.y.		2009	+/- % p.y.
Revenue passenger km (RPK) m	1,613.7	-10.3		12,865.0	-14.1		5,110.3	-10.6
Scheduled	1,395.4	-7.6		11,275.8	-12.6		4,330.5	-7.7
Long Haul	665.6	-14.9		5,353.3	-19.3		2,081.1	-15.0
Short/Medium Haul	729.8	0.3		5,922.5	-5.5		2,249.4	0.2
- Focus East1	361.0	-1.5		3,057.1	-5.7		1,183.4	-0.7
- Rest of Europe2	368.8	2.1		2,865.4	-5.4		1,066.0	1.3
Charter	218.4	-24.4		1,589.2	-23.6		779.8	-23.8
Available seat km (ASK) m	2,072.8	-10.3		17,417.5	-12.0		6,514.8	-11.5
Scheduled	1,801.4	-8.2		15,477.3	-10.4		5,511.2	-9.4
Long Haul	772.6	-18.3		6,691.2	-17.2		2,381.0	-17.7
Short/Medium Haul	1,028.8	1.3		8,786.1	-4.5		3,130.1	-1.7
- Focus East1	543.0	3.6		4,692.6	-0.1		1,686.3	1.4
- Rest of Europe2	485.8	-1.2		4,093.5	-9.1		1,443.9	-5.2
Charter	271.5	-22.0		1,940.1	-23.1		904.6	-22.7
Passenger load factor %	77.9	0.0	P.	73.9	-1.8	P.	79.7	0.8	P.
Scheduled	77.5	0.5	P.	72.9	-1.8	P.	78.6	1.4	P.
Long Haul	86.1	3.5	P.	80.0	-2.1	P.	87.4	2.9	P.
Short/Medium Haul	70.9	-0.7	P.	67.4	-0.7	P.	71.9	1.4	P.
- Focus East1	66.5	-3.4	P.	65.1	-3.9	P.	70.2	-1.5	P.
- Rest of Europe2	75.9	2.4	P.	70.0	2.8	P.	73.8	4.7	P.
Charter	80.4	-2.6	P.	81.9	-0.5	P.	86.2	-1.3	P.
Passengers carried  000	969.9	-7.8		7,573.3	-12.8		2,982.5	-8.8
Scheduled	837.3	-5.7		6,712.6	-11.2		2,511.3	-6.1
Long Haul	90.4	-16.8		737.3	-20.9		284.2	-16.5
Short/Medium Haul	746.9	-4.1		5,975.3	-9.9		2,227.1	-4.6
- Focus East1	274.4	-10.0		2,279.8	-12.0		875.3	-8.0
- Rest of Europe2	472.5	-0.3		3,695.5	-8.5		1,351.9	-2.3
Charter	132.6	-19.3		860.7	-23.3		471.3	-20.9
Total revenue tonne km (RTK) m	196.8	-11.1		1,580.6	-15.6		620.9	-11.3
Scheduled	175.8	-9.2		1,427.1	-14.7		545.9	-9.2
Long Haul	98.0	-17.2		800.2	-21.9		306.7	-17.1
Short/Medium Haul	77.8	3.4		626.8	-3.2		239.3	3.3
- Focus East1	39.9	4.7		331.8	-1.4		129.5	4.9
- Rest of Europe2	37.9	2.1		295.0	-5.2		109.8	1.4
Charter	21.0	-24.5		153.6	-23.4		75.0	-23.8
Total available tonne km (ATK) m	261.3	-10.3		2,194.2	-12.3		805.1	-11.6
Scheduled	234.0	-8.5		1,994.4	-11.2		714.0	-9.8
Long Haul	119.0	-18.4		1,030.1	-17.3		366.6	-17.8
Short/Medium Haul	115.0	4.6		964.3	-3.5		347.4	0.5
- Focus East1	62.6	10.9		525.4	3.2		192.4	6.9
- Rest of Europe2	52.4	-2.0		438.9	-10.5		155.0	-6.4
Charter	27.3	-23.0		199.8	-22.4		91.0	-23.1
Overall load factor %	75.3	-0.7	P.	72.0	-2.8	P.	77.1	0.2	P.
Scheduled	75.1	-0.6	P.	71.6	-2.9	P.	76.5	0.5	P.
Long Haul	82.3	1.2	P.	77.7	-4.6	P.	83.6	0.8	P.
Short/Medium Haul	67.7	-0.8	P.	65.0	0.2	P.	68.9	1.8	P.
- Focus East1	63.7	-3.8	P.	63.1	-3.0	P.	67.3	-1.3	P.
- Rest of Europe2	72.4	2.9	P.	67.2	3.8	P.	70.8	5.5	P.
Charter	76.9	-1.5	P.	76.9	-1.0	P.	82.4	-0.7	P.

¹ CEE and Middle East                ² Incl. Domestic
 
Owner, Editor, Reproducer: Austrian Airlines AG, Corporate Communications public.relations@austrian.com.
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