Freight volumes down at Lufthansa Cargo as tough conditions take their toll

Lufthansa Cargo saw freight volumes decline last year as strikes, turbulence in the Chinese market and a stronger US dollar all weighed heavily on the German carrier’s results.
Lufthansa Cargo carried 1.6m tonnes of freight and mail last year, which represents a 2.4% decline on 2014 levels. In freight tonne km (FTK) terms, the airline recorded a 2.9% year-on-year decrease to 8.4bn FTK.
However, it claimed to have maintained its "leading position in Europe".
Meanwhile, the carrier increased the capacity offered by two percent over the last twelve months and as a result its load factor declined by 3.4 percentage points to 66.3%.
Lufthansa Cargo chief executive and chairman of the executive board Peter Gerber said: “Last year was not an easy one for the air freight industry.
“Turbulence in the Chinese market and the strong US Dollar, that affected a lot of industries, stretched us all to our limits.
“Strikes called by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union and the cabin crew union UFO also weighed heavily on us at Lufthansa Cargo.”
To meet current market conditions, the Lufthansa subsidiary is withdrawing two MD-11 freighters from its fleet to improve utilisation on the freighter routes.
The airline will have five new Boeing 777 freighters as well as twelve MD-11Fs in its fleet.
On top of this, there are capacities via its AeroLogic subsidiary, which has a total of eight Boeing 777Fs and belly capacities of passenger aircraft operated by Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines.