Lufthansa's passenger traffic rose 8.5 percent in December from a year earlier, boosted by travel to Asia/Pacific destinations, the carrier said on Tuesday.

The passenger load factor, which measures the average number of seats sold as a proportion of seats available on its flights, was up 1 percentage point to 70.6 percent in December, even after the airline raised capacity on its flights by 7 percent.

"Capacity utilization improved in all traffic regions, the best results being recorded in Asia/Pacific, where passenger numbers soared," Lufthansa said.

Traffic, expressed as the number of paying passengers multiplied by the distance they flew, rose 14.7 percent in 2004 from the previous year, the airline added. The load factor for the full year was up 0.9 percentage points to 74 percent.

Lufthansa carried 3.58 million passengers in December, bringing the total for the year to 50.9 million, an increase of 12 percent. The figure for last month represented an 8.1 percent gain.

The airline said its Lufthansa Cargo air freight division reported a marked improvement in December as the amount of freight and post carried rose 12.9 percent from December 2003 to 152,000 tonnes.