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.