Passenger Increase Lifts Lufthansa Higher

Deutsche Lufthansa moved up into second place in the league table of Europe's biggest airlines by passenger traffic, overtaking British Airways after increasing seat capacity to meet a rebound in demand. Lufthansa increased its traffic, measured as the number of passengers multiplied by the distance flown, by 13 percent last year to 109.5 billion revenue passenger kilometers, according to the Brussels-based Association of European Airlines. This was in contrast to its British rival which posted a 6 percent gain to 106.5 billion revenue passenger kilometers. Lufthansa is Europe's largest airline by market value -- €4.86 billion ($6.41 billion) -- ahead of British Airways and Air France-KLM.