Better year for Cargolux than expected
03 / 03 / 2015
DESPITE budgeting for a US$27.1million loss last year, all-cargo airline Cargolux earned a full year net profit of US$8.4 million last year compared to a $35.1 million net loss in 2012.
Total revenues during the 12 months rose 14.4 per cent to $1,988.5m from $1,738.9m in 2012.
Tonnes sold increased 16.7 per cent to 753,848 whilst average load factor softened 0.9 percentage points to 67.7 per cent, exceeding its budget by 13.5 per cent.
FTKs strengthened to 5.7 million compared with 4.8m in 2012.
Daily aircraft utilisation stood at 14:57 block hours versus 15:07 in 2012.
“In spite of a moderate recovery in the last quarter, the airfreight industry continued to operate in a difficult environment for the most part of 2013,” says a statement.
Capacity growth still outstripped demand, which resulted in an industry-wide decline in yields and load factors.
“Despite difficult trading conditions, Cargolux grew its activities and increased volumes in a bid to maximise contribution to fixed costs,” it adds.
Cargolux operated 95,022 block hours, 13,364 hours more than planned for 2013.
Last year, Cargolux expanded its fleet with three new B747-8Fs and retained, on a power-by-the-hour basis, a B747-400F that was initially planned to exit the fleet during 2013. It also added a B747-400ERF on the same basis, which brought the fleet to 20 aircraft at the end of the year.
The budget for 2013 had foreseen a fleet of 16 aircraft only.
In the year, the company’s market share reached 3.5 per cent, ranking it at number eight among the world’s dedicated freighter and combination carriers in terms of FTKs.
“We don’t expect market conditions to improve significantly in 2014,” says newly-appointed president and chief executive Dirk Reich.
“Our priority is to grow and expand our global network with the continued support and valuable contribution of our hard-working employees while focusing on efficiency and performance improvements.
“I am also confident in our ability to reap the first tangible rewards from the cooperation with our new shareholder HNCA,” he adds.
