Air Berlin transports 27.9 million passengers in 2009
In 2009, Air Berlin, Germany's second-largest airline company, transported a total of 27,911,193 passengers (including those traveling on the TUIfly routes acquired on 25 October 2009), thus confirming the company's spring 2009 forecast with respect to the development in the number of passengers traveling with Air Berlin.
The 2009 figure corresponds to a decrease of 3.9 percent in comparison with the previous year (2008: 29,050,967 passengers, including those traveling on the acquired TUIfly routes). One of the reasons for this decline is that the accumulated capacity was reduced by 2.6 percent. Despite the difficult market environment, fleet capacity utilization in 2009 reached 77.3 percent, a decline of only one percentage point (2008: 78.3 percent). Revenue per available seat kilometer (ASK) increased to 5.75 Eurocents, i.e. a 7 percent increase over the previous year (2008: 5.38 Eurocents).
In December 2009, Air Berlin welcomed 2,050,380 passengers on board (including those traveling on the acquired TUIfly routes), i.e. 0.8 percent more than in the corresponding month of the previous year (December 2008: 2,034,809 passengers, including those traveling on the acquired TUIfly routes). Fleet capacity utilization increased by 0.5 percentage points to 73.1 percent (December 2008: 72.6 percent). Capacity remained at the previous year's level (+0.1 percent). Revenue per available seat kilometer (ASK) for December 2009 amounted to 4.98 Eurocents, i.e. a 6.5 percent decrease in comparison with the previous year (December 2008: 5.33 Eurocents).
