Lufthansa February passenger level up 20 pct

FRANKFURT

German airline group Deutsche Lufthansa AG says its February group passenger level rose 20 percent to 5.6 million people even though a strike grounded some of its planes last month.

The Cologne-based company said Tuesday overall passenger levels rose even though they fell 7.2 percent at its main Lufthansa brand in February because of the strike.

Group passenger load factor for February, a measure of how full airplanes are, declined slightly to 72.1 percent.

Cargo across the group showed an 9.1 percent improvement in tonnage for February.

Lufthansa is Europe's largest airline group by sales. It owns or holds stakes in carriers including Swiss International Airlines, Austrian Airlines and British Midland.

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