Germany’s biggest cargo carrier, Lufthansa Cargo, transported  864,490 tonnes of freight and mail in the first six months of 2012, representing a year-on-year decline in volume of 9.2 per cent.  Throughout this period, market conditions in all the traffic regions remained challenging.

However, despite increasingly difficult conditions, Lufthansa Cargo succeeded in maintaining utilisation rates for its aircraft at a high level. Compared to the same period last year, the load factor slipped marginally, by 0.7 percentage points, to 68.4 per cent.

“There can be no talk as yet of a real crisis,” stressed Executive Board Chairman & CEO Karl Ulrich Garnadt. “Extreme volatility has been a hallmark of our industry for some time now, and we know how we have to deal with it.  Lufthansa Cargo temporarily suspends flights from its sched-ule or closes down routes permanently when they cease to be financially viable. This flexible, demand-driven management of our capacities is one of our strengths that we are also relying on now.”

The financial results for the first six months of the year will be published on 2 August.

Please find here the Lufthansa Cargo key figures for the first half of 2012.