Austrian Airlines Release Traffic Results for January 2013
Austrian Airlines carried 723,200 passengers in January
The Austrian Airlines Group carried a total of 723,200 passengers in January 2013, a decline of 2.3 percent from the previous year. The streamlined fleet (five fewer aircraft) arose from the targeted reduction of four medium-haul aircraft within the context of a fleet harmonization program, as well as the technical downtime of one long-haul aircraft which was taken out of service to install the new cabin. An additional reason for the slight decrease of passenger figures was the weather related disturbance of European air traffic mid-January. Especially at Vienna Airport several flights were delayed or had to be cancelled. Accordingly, capacity was reduced by 9.7 percent as measured by available seat kilometers (ASK). However, revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) were down by only 4.9 percent. As a result, the passenger load factor equaled 71.8 percent on average, or 3.6 percentage points above the comparable level in January 2012.
“The year 2013 began well for us. We moderately reduced capacity to reflect reduced demand in January. Our sales are going well, and our passenger load factor is continually improving”, says Karsten Benz, Chief Commercial Officer of Austrian Airlines.
Europe
In January 2013, a total of 591,400 passengers flew with Austrian Airlines in Europe. This comprises a decrease of 1.5 percent from the previous year. The passenger load factor rose by 2.5 percentage points to 67.7 percent.
Intercontinental
In January 2013, the number of passengers carried by Austrian Airlines on its intercontinental flights totaled 109,800, down 7.1 percentage points from January 2012. The passenger load factor climbed 5.1 percentage points to 75.6 percent.