JOC Staff | Feb 11, 2013 10:05AM EST
Lufthansa Cargo’s traffic slumped 8.3 percent in January from a year ago as Europe’s biggest scheduled cargo airline continued to remove capacity in a bid to remain in the black in a weak global market.
The German carrier, which carried 115,000 metric tons of freight last month, cut capacity by 8.1 percent, which helped boost the load factor by two percentage points to 68.8 percent.
Revenue held up better, declining 5.4 percent from January 2012.
The Lufthansa group, which includes SwissWorldCargo, saw freight decline by 8.8 percent to 132,000 tons, while revenue was down 3.2 percent. Capacity was 5.7 percent less than a year ago, and the load factor improved 1.7 points to 67.7 percent.
The Americas network posted the biggest decline, down 9.9 percent to 40,000 tons, and Asia-Pacific shipments were 5 percent lower at 35,000 tons.
Earlier, Air France-KLM announced cargo fell 2.9 percent in January from a year earlier on 1.3 percent less capacity. IAG, the merged British Airways-Iberia airline, carried 7.7 percent less freight with 1 percent less capacity, with the Spanish airline slumping 17 percent, while its British partner was 5.2 percent lower.