Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Jul 10, 2012 11:03AM EDT
Germany’s Lufthansa Cargo carried 4.6 percent less freight in June than a year ago as it slashed capacity in line with weakening demand on its key Americas and Asia-Pacific routes.
Europe’s largest scheduled cargo airline transported 151,000 metric tons of freight in June, a marked improvement on the 144,000 tons in May that left traffic in the first half of the year down 9.2 percent from the 2011 period at 864,000 tons.
Cargo revenue dipped 4.9 percent as capacity was cut 6.3 percent, boosting the load factor by 1 percentage point to 69.5 percent.
The parent Lufthansa group, which includes SwissWorldCargo, reported cargo down 3.3 percent at 172,000 tons for a half year total of 987,000 tons, 7.8 percent less than in the same period in 2011.
Revenue declined 3.1 percent on 4.3 percent less capacity, which boosted the load factor by 0.8 points to 66.7 percent.
The Americas network saw traffic shrink 2.9 percent to 54,000 tons, a significant improvement on the 12.8 percent slump in May.
Asia-Pacific volume declined 6.3 percent to 46,000 tons, compared with a 12.8 percent slide in May.
Close rival Air France-KLM recorded a 1.4 percent drop in traffic on a 2.8 percent cut in capacity, which left the load factor down 0.9 points at 63.9 percent. This marked a turnaround from May when traffic slumped 8.8 percent from the previous year.
IAG, the merged British Airways-Iberia carrier, bucked the trend, with traffic up 0.6 percent and revenue 6.9 percent higher than a year ago, as a strong performance from the U.K. carrier outweighed a double-digit decline at its Spanish partner.
BA, a much larger cargo carrier, boosted freight revenue by 4.5 percent, while Iberia revenue was down 14.3 percent.
Unlike its rivals, IAG increased capacity, by 5.1 percent, from June 2011.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.
