Air Berlin's Good March

I know I've been blogging a lot about budget airlines lately. This is mostly due to the fact that the previous month's airline stats have just been released. Budget airlines are also on my mind because, in gearing up for my extended stay in London, I've just booked a bunch of tickets on European LCCs. And also because EuroCheapo just launched a new budget air section, no doubt.

All of which brings me, circuitously, to news of Air Berlin's March performance. The airline did quite well this past month, with a modest 5.5 percent improvement in passenger numbers (accounting for over 2,175,000 passengers) against last March's figures. Air Berlin managed a 4 percent rise in load factor in March in comparison to last March, filling 77.8 percent of its seats.

Air Berlin trailed Ryanair by about a percentage point on March load factor (77.8 percent to 79 percent), while they lead SkyEurope by over four percentage points (77.8 percent to 73.6 percent).

It will be interesting to see how the summer season and various sales, like Ryanair's near-constant state of sale, will affect load factor over the next few months.