More freight at Lufthansa Cargo

Freight carrier increases operating profit after nine months to 230 million euros

Lufthansa Cargo reported an increase in freight and a significantly improved load factor at the close of the third quarter of 2010. From January to September, the carrier transported about 1.3 million tonnes of freight. This represents a year-on-year increase of 19.4 per cent. Measured by transported tonne- kilometres, sales even rose by 22.8 per cent. The fact that Lufthansa Cargo had only implemented a moderate expansion of its offer by 5.9 per cent meant that the cargo load factor improved by almost ten percentage points to 71.1 per cent.

In the first nine months of this year Lufthansa Cargo achieved an operating profit of 230 million euros. Revenues grew by 45 per cent to 2.0 billion euros.

"Lufthansa Cargo has so far made optimal use of the upswing this year," emphasized Lufthansa Cargo Chairman and CEO Carsten Spohr. "We were able to realize the targeted expansion of our offer, bringing about a significant increase in the load factors, and we intend to keep growing during the fourth quarter." As of November, Lufthansa Cargo will again be able to count on all 18 of its MD-11 freighters to achieve this goal. At the end of September, the last of the MD-11, which were temporarily parked in the Californian desert, were reactivated. Spohr underlined Lufthansa Cargo would continue to focus its strategy on high quality paired with a dense network in global business locations.