Ryanair has overtaken Lufthansa as Europe's biggest airline by passenger numbers after the German carrier Tuesday reported a meagre 1.8% rise in the number of people it flew in 2016. Lufthansa's 109.7m passengers last year fell short of the 117m passengers reported by Ryanair last week, a 15% increase on the previous year, as Ryanair pulled in passengers with low prices. The year saw strong performances from other budget carriers, with Norwegian Air Shuttle reporting passenger numbers up 14% and Wizz Air up 19%. EasyJet, which suffered more than low-cost rivals from strikes in France and tourists avoiding destinations hit by attacks, grew passenger numbers 6.6%. <br/>
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Lufthansa Group plans to become the Òmost digital aviation groupÓ in 2017, CE Carsten Spohr said. The company has begun the next phase of testing Lufthansa FlyNet internet access, initially on five Airbus A320s each at Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines. The trial will include free service and will offer internet access on inner-European routes. Passengers who fly on these aircraft will be offered free internet use during this test phase. Lufthansa passengers can gain Wi-Fi access to the internet using their own mobile devices. In the future, three service packages will be available. The company is Òinvesting E300m in digitalisation for our customers until 2020.Ó <br/>
United Tuesday raised its Q4 passenger unit revenue guidance to an expected decline of between 1.25% and 1.75% from 3% to 4%, pushing up its expected pre-tax profit margin compared to Q4 of 2015. United credited its improved outlook to strengthened last-minute bookings and ticket yields in November and December. Business demand was stronger than expected in the two weeks leading up to Christmas, the company said, and the winter holidays brought better-than-expected demand for leisure travel. The carrier now expects its profit margin to be between 9.25% and 9.75%, up from its earlier prediction of between 7.5% and 8.5%. <br/>
Turkish Airlines cancelled flights at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport Monday as heavy snow and poor visibility continued in the region. All flights were cancelled until 18:00 local time, with domestic flights suspended until midnight. The airline hoped to get some flights out but said that was dependent on the weather. Passengers were requested to contact the airline to check their flightÕs status. THY were offering to rebook and reroute passengers without charge, subject to conditions. <br/>