Upward trend at Lufthansa Cargo continues

Operating profit of 144 million Euro implies the best half-year result in the history of the company

In this week Lufthansa Cargo published the financial figures of the first six months. An operating profit of 144 million Euro implies a record result for Lufthansa Cargo. In the first six months the company transported 830,000 tons of freight and mail. That was about 20 percent more than in the same period of 2009. Growth was particularly strong in the volume of freight to and from Asia as well as to America. In the Asia/Pacific traffic region Lufthansa Cargo was able to increase the volume transported by 24.6 percent, in America the increase was even as high as 31.1 percent.

In the second quarter Lufthansa Cargo slightly increased the capacity offered. After six months the capacity growth was 2.3 percent. Sales increased - as already in the first three months - at an over-proportional rate and at the end of the first half of the year were up by 24.9 percent. As a result, the load factor improved significantly in the first six months and was 72.3 percent. That is 13.1 percentage points higher than a year ago.

"In the second quarter we once again purposeful took advantage of market opportunities and invested in growth markets", said the Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Cargo, Carsten Spohr. He added that with new destinations, for example, to Tianjin/China and the return of the first MD11 airfreighters which had been temporarily mothballed, the company was well-prepared for the second half of the year. "Since 1st July, the capacities on board Austrian Airline flights have also been made available to our customers", according to Spohr. "We can thus offer an even more extensive network and an additional plus in terms of flexibility".