Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Sep 11, 2012 10:47AM EDT
Lufthansa Cargo carried 8 percent less freight in August than a year ago as it reduced capacity in a bid to stay profitable in a slowing global air cargo market.
The decline, to 137,000 metric tons, left traffic for the first eight months of the year 9.2 percent lower at 1.15 million tons.
Cargo revenue declined 7 percent on a 10.6 percent reduction in capacity, which boosted the load factor by 2.7 percentage points to 71.4 percent.
The Lufthansa group, which includes Swiss Cargo, saw cargo decline 6 percent in August to 157,000 tons for an eight-month total of 1.3 million tons, down 7.7 percent from the same period in 2011.
Traffic fell 6.4 percent on the Americas network to 48,000 tons and was 9.6 percent lower on Asia-Pacific routes at 43,000 tons. The previously resilient Middle East-Africa region was down 2.5 percent at 15,000 tons.
Air France-KLM’s traffic slumped 7.8 percent in August as an adjustment of its full freighter schedule resulted in a 5.2 percent reduction in capacity. Asia-Pacific revenue shrank 11.9 percent from August 2011, and Americas revenue was down 3.6 percent.
IAG, the merged British Airways-Iberia carrier, again bucked the downward trend, with August traffic growing 2.9 percent from a year ago on a 5.4 percent increase in capacity as a solid performance by the U.K. carrier more than offset a decline at its Spanish partner.
IAG’s revenue increased 4.8 percent, but the load factor dipped 0.4 points to 75.9 percent.
British Airways cargo traffic jumped 6.3 percent, while Iberia was down 10.2 percent.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.