Lufthansa Cargo traffic up by a quarter

A BOOM in demand across the Americas has lifted Lufthansa Cargo freight traffic by 24.8 per cent in April from a year ago.

The airline transported 161,000 tonnes in April, taking traffic for the first four months of the year to 630,000 tonnes, up 21.1 per cent on the same period in 2010.

The German carrier’s freight revenue was up 23.6 per cent on April 2010 on 30.9 per cent more capacity, which clipped the load factor by four percentage points to 68.3 per cent.

Traffic shot up 31.6 per cent on the Americas network to 58,000 tonnes, outpacing both the Asia/Pacific region, which grew 18.8 per cent to 51,000 tonnes, and Middle East/Africa, up 18.9 per cent at 16,000 tonnes.

The company also almost doubled first quarter profit from a year ago to US$92 million.