Lufthansa becomes biggest airline in Europe in 2018

Carrying 142 million passengers in 2018, the Lufthansa Group has set a new record and become the biggest airline in Europe, the company announced on Thursday.

The German airline was temporarily pushed from the throne as Europe's biggest airline by Ryanair in 2016.

In 2018, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group operated more than 1.2 million flights and achieved a seat load factor above 80 percent.

The biggest drivers of growth for Lufthansa's airlines were the Zurich, Munich and Vienna hubs, where the number of passengers grew by 9.5 percent, 9.3 percent and 8.5 percent respectively.

The number of Lufthansa passengers at Germany's biggest airport Frankfurt grew by 4.7 percent in 2018. Eurowings, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, significantly contributed to the passenger record with a growth of 18 percent.

In 2018, the Eurowings Group carried a total of around 38.5 million passengers, representing around 27 percent of the total number of Lufthansa Group's passengers.