Singapore  - German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG said Thursday that it had gained passengers on its Asian routes since last year although the aviation industry was hit hard by the global economic crisis.

"On the Asian routes, we are not losing passengers; we are gaining passengers," Lufthansa's vice president for the Asia-Pacific, Uwe Mueller, said in Singapore.

"The seat load factor that we see on our [Asian] flights this year, especially in the last couple of months, has grown since last year," he said, noting that Lufthansa was filling "80 plus per cent" of its seats, 1 to 1.5 per cent higher than in previous years.

The Lufthansa group, including its latest acquisitions of Swiss and Austrian Airlines, offers about 20,000 seats per day on its flights to and from Asia.

"We are sure that we will come out of the crisis as strong as ever, even with a stable network in Asia," Mueller said.

The airline has not stopped flying to any of its destinations in Asia but has reacted to the economic crisis by making adjustments in capacity, such as replacing business class seats with economy class seats, Mueller said.

This winter, Lufthansa plans to offer slightly more seats on its Asian routes than a year ago.

"We have planned to fly full capacity throughout the winter and the summer of next year," Mueller said, adding that all Lufthansa markets from Asia into Europe were performing strongly. (dpa)