Lufthansa volumes gain 20 per cent

IN the first quarter of the year Lufthansa Cargo, which won this year’s Cargo Airline of the Year award, increased the volume of freight and mail it transported by 19.9 per cent on first quarter 2010 levels.

The growth was nurtured by the reactivation of freighters, which were parked temporarily in the crisis, expansion of the AeroLogic fleet to a total of eight aircraft and the marketing of the freight capacities of Austrian Airlines, which boosted capacity by 22.8 per cent. Almost all the increased capacity was sold so that the cargo load factor ended the quarter at a high 69.9 per cent.

The positive development of German export business also lifted Lufthansa Cargo’s traffic figures in the home market, chairman and chief executive officer Karl Ulrich Garnadt said.

Lufthansa starts the second quarter by expanding its route network in Asia. Starting 20 April the airline is connecting Frankfurt with once-weekly flights to Dhaka (Bangladesh). The flights will be operated by a Lufthansa Cargo MD-11F.

“Bangladesh has assumed growing importance as a production base for the international fashion industry. Our direct flights to and from Dhaka will shorten the transport time for customers and link them into Lufthansa Cargo’s global network,” said Carsten Hernig, regional director South Asia and Middle East of Lufthansa Cargo.

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