Lufthansa Cargo March traffic falls

LUFTHANSA Cargo’s March freight traffic fell 19.9 per cent year-on-year, from 123,000 tonnes to 154,000.

Despite the carrier making a 4.7 per cent cut in capacity by parking 19 MD-11s, the decline overtook such measures, which resulted in a load factor decline of 11.4, down to 57.6 per cent. In addition, the company has cut the working hours of nearly 3,000 ground-handling staff and made other cost savings.

The main culprits to blame for the fall were the North and South American networks, which fell 25.9 per cent to 38,000 tonnes, and Asia/Pacific down 14.7 per cent also down to 38,000.

To mitigate the decline the carrier has announced more routes into emerging markets: a weekly freighter from Frankfurt to Hanoi, Vietnam and a weekly MD-11 flight to Hyderabad, India.