Lufthansa is the first European airline group to go beyond 140 million passengers

The German group Lufthansa, which owns the Belgian company Brussels Airlines, as well as Swiss and Austrian Airlines, has confirmed its status as the leading European aerospace group in terms of passengers. It transported about $ 142 million passengers last year, up 10% from 2017.

Lufthansa remains more important than Ryanair, number two in Europe. The Irish low-cost airline totaled some 139.2 million passengers in 2018 (+ 8%), Ryanair reported last week.

Within the German group, Brussels Airlines is part of Eurowings, a subsidiary that grew by 18% last year to 38.5 million passengers. The Belgian airline no longer publishes its own numbers.

“Brussels Airlines is part of the growth of the Eurowings Group,” says spokesperson Maaike Andries. “We have also seen an increase compared to 2017,” she added, refusing however to give more details. That year, the company exceeded for the first time the 9 million passenger mark.