During the month of August, Brussels Airlines welcomed 962,439 passengers on board its flights, an increase of 16.6% compared to August 2017. The strongest passenger growth was registered on the African network (+31.4%), thanks to the addition of many new holiday destinations in North Africa in cooperation with Thomas Cook, Neckermann and Pegase. The number of passengers travelling on European flights rose by 15.3%. On the Asian flights, 11.4% more customers chose to fly Brussels Airlines. The number of people traveling to the Middle East (Tel Aviv) increased by 9.4%. Compared to the same month last year, 8.7% more customers were registered on the North American network.Brussels Airlines operated 6.9% more flights, but the Available Seat-Kilometers (ASK) increased even more (+19.9%) due to the replacement of AVRO jets (100 seats) by bigger Airbus aircraft (180 seats). The Seat Load Factor climbed from 85% in August last year to 86.5% in August 2018 (+1.5pp.). Thanks to its increased offer, Brussels Airlines was able to continue offering competitive fares and attract even more customers. This means, however, that the pressure on the yield remains very high.
The Cargo Load Factor decreased slightly (-4.5 percentage points) to an average of 61.5%, due to the fast growing flight offer. The transported cargo volume amounted to 3,690 tons. The Revenue Ton-Kilometers (RTK) grew by 19.3%.
