Air Berlin Jan passenger count drops 11.3 pct

FRANKFURT Feb 7 (Reuters) - Air Berlin, the German airline partly owned by Gulf carrier Etihad, saw January passenger numbers decline 11.3 percent as it cut the number of flights.

The monthly passenger count dropped to 1.90 million from 2.15 million a year earlier, Germany's second largest airline after Lufthansa said on Tuesday.

The passenger load factor, a measure of capacity utilisation, widened 2.6 percentage points to 75 percent after the company reduced capacity by 14.4 percent in January, it added.

Air Berlin had a tumultuous year in 2011, with founder and Chief Executive Joachim Hunold stepping down in August after failing for several years to return the company to profit and piling up debts of more than 600 million euros. (Reporting by Ludwig Burger)