The German airline Lufthansa reported that its passenger numbers dropped by 5.7% in May, compared with the same month last year.

However, the airline pointed out that this was the smallest fall in traffic since 11 September.

"Indeed, passenger numbers were actually up on routes to both the Asia-Pacific and Middle East-Africa," it said.

Traffic in April had fallen by 11.3%.

Traffic is measured by multiplying the number of paying passengers by the distance they flew.

Europe and America down

The number of passengers flying to European destinations fell by 6.5%, while passenger numbers to North and South America were down by 9.5%.

Lufthansa said the total number of passengers it carried in May fell to 3.78 million.

Shares in the carrier lost almost 2%, but the good news about passenger numbers manage to counteract worries about no-frills airlines taking over the German market.