Lufthansa sees passenger numbers surge
INTERNATIONAL airline Lufthansa has bounced back from the downturn with a 37.6% increase in passengers flying from Manchester.
The German airline, which operates 87 weekly flights from Manchester Airport, said business travellers made a significant contribution to the improvement in the year to August.
Flights to Munich saw the biggest improvement with 62% growth while Hamburg improved by 51%. Frankfurt saw the smallest increase with 13%.
Marianne Sammann, general manager of Lufthansa UK & Ireland said: “It’s been largely driven by business travel. We see that our customers are increasingly travelling to refresh their contacts.
“Demand is continuing to increase for business reasons because businesses need to be out there. There was a surge at the beginning of the year.”
The airline, which owns BMI, has been wooing small business customers with incentive schemes such as a frequent flyer programme for companies.
Lufthansa flies direct to Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart and connects on to destinations around the world.
According to its figures the number of passengers travelling on to the Middle East grew by 84%, while onward flights to the North Atlantic were up by 24%.
