Lufthansa Airlines has come up with its best-ever traffic figures in the first half 2007.

Never before in the first six months of a year have so many passengers flown with Germany's biggest airline as in this year, said a senior Lufthansa official.

Around 27 million passengers took flights with Lufthansa from January to June, 5.9 per cent more than in the same term in the previous year.

Revenue-passenger kilometres rose year-on-year by 7.7 per cent to 56.8 million. The seat load factor improved by 2.1 percentage points to 76.1 per cent.

Lufthansa Cargo transported 877,000 tonnes of cargo and mail in the first half, which is 2.8 per cent up on the previous year's level. The cargo load factor was up by 1.3 percentage points to 68.5 per cent.

Overall capacity utilisation in the passenger and airfreight business improved in the first six months to 72.9 per cent - an increase of 1.7 percentage points.

The Lufthansa Group will be publishing the first-half figures on July 26, 2007. They will be available for download at www.lufthansa-financials.com.Trade Arabia News Service