Lufthansa Cargo Decline Slows in October

Lufthansa Cargo carried 4 percent less freight in October than a year ago, the third consecutive month of single digit declines and just over a fifth of the drop at close rival Air France-KLM.

Europe's second largest scheduled cargo airline flew 144,000 tonnes of freight in October, taking traffic for the first ten months to 1.24 million tonnes, down 14 percent from the same period in 2008.

The German carrier cut capacity by 4.5 percent last month, resulting in the load factor, or portion of available cargo space sold, increasing by 3.2 percentage points to 68.3 percent.

The October decline compares with an 8.5 percent drop in September and a 1.1 percent decrease in August which was distorted by a sharp fall in volume in the same month in 2008.

The Lufthansa group's cargo traffic, including SwissCargo, shrunk 4.1 percent in October to 161,000 tonnes, taking the total for the first ten months to 1.39 million tonnes, 14.2 per cent lower than in the year-earlier period.

Cargo traffic on North and South American routes stabilized at 48,000 tonnes while Asia/Pacific shipments were down 7.1 percent at 43,000 tonnes.

The group's cargo load factor improved 3.2 points to 65.1 percent.

Lufthansa's cargo unit swung to a $300 million loss in the first nine months of the year from a $240 million profit in the same period in 2008.

The carrier has said freight rates have stopped falling and it has raised tariffs across its network. But it described the market as "persistently weak".

Lufthansa Cargo grounded four of its 19 MD-11 freighters in October for at least a year.

Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.