Lufthansa expects a healthier 2004

Traffic - the number of passengers multiplied by the distance they flew - rose to 7.25 billion revenue-passenger kilometres, the airline said.

The number of seats sold and the amount of freight carried also went up.

Lufthansa reported a 980m euro (�657m) loss for 2003; its sales had dropped by 4.6% in the first quarter of the year.

But last month, passengers on European flights totalled 2.9 million, up 6.8% on February last year while North and South America passengers totalled 368,000, up 13%.

The airline has predicted that 2004 is likely to be better a much better year.