Lufthansa Cargo improves traffic figures in first quarter

Significant improvement in capacity utilisation/ 2008 level almost achieved

In the first three months of this year, Lufthansa Cargo significantly improved its transport performance. Following the dramatic slide in cargo volumes in the crisis year 2009, the figures for the first quarter of the current year are only slightly below the 2008 level.

From January to March, Lufthansa Cargo transported about 390,000 tonnes of freight and mail. This represents a year-on-year increase of 19.3 per cent. The highest growth rates were achieved in the Americas traffic region, which reported 27.8 per cent growth, and Asia/Pacific, which saw 21.7 per cent growth.

Targeted measures to adjust capacity in response to market demand were implemented, resulting in a two per cent reduction in available capacity. As sales simultaneously rose by 22.2 per cent to 1.9 billion tonne- kilometres, the cargo load factor improved substantially, increasing by 14.2 percentage points to 71.8 per cent.

"The positive trend at year-end 2009 has also continued in the first quarter of this year," said Lufthansa Cargo CEO and Chairman Carsten Spohr. "America and Asia continue to be the main engines of growth. It is gratifying to observe that in both directions - i.e. also from Europe - demand remains strong."
The financial results for the first three months of this year will be published on 5 May 2010.