Wow! Bush is even responsible for people changing their travel plans now:
Lufthansa points finger at President Bush as numbers fall
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — German airline Lufthansa said on Wednesday that passenger numbers fell in February as a result of special factors, including the one-day visit to Germany by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Lufthansa said in a statement that a total 3.502 million people flew with its aircraft last month, 3.4% fewer than in February 2004.
"Special factors such as the calendar effect of the leap year in 2004, unusually long periods of snow and ice and flight cancellations due to the visit of President Bush had a substantially negative effect on passenger traffic" in February, Lufthansa complained.
Last month, Europe's third biggest carrier had said it was considering suing security authorities for damages because it had been forced to cancel 92 flights owing to Bush's visit.
Lufthansa estimated the disruption at Frankfurt airport, its main hub, cost it several million dollars.
Frankfurt was closed on Februay 23 for more than half an hour to allow Bush's presidential jet to land at the nearby US airbase at Rhein-Main.
Lufthansa said capacity utilisation also declined last month, with the so-called seat-load factor, a key measure or profitability, slipping by 0.4 percentage point to 72.0% in February.
Passenger traffic was down on all routes except to the Asia/Pacific region, where passenger numbers rose by 9.4% to 284,000.
The number of people flying to the Americas fell by 3.6% to 355,000 and the number of passengers on European flights was down 3.4% at 3.502 million.
usatoday.com |
