Lufthansa Cargo Traffic Slumps

London – Lufthansa Cargo on March 10 reported freight traffic in February tumbled 24.9 percent from a year ago as the deepening global recession slashed shipments on its Americas and Asian routes.

The German carrier’s cargo volume fell to 109,000 tonnes from 145,000 tonnes in February 2008, leaving traffic in the first two months of the year 25.4 percent lower at 205,000 tonnes.

Lufthansa trimmed its capacity by 8.4 percent in the month by grounding two MD-11 freighters, but the steep decline in traffic saw the load factor, or capacity utilization, plunge 11.8 percentage points to 58.5 percent.

Group cargo volume including subsidiary Swiss Cargo fell 24.5 percent in February to 123,000 tonnes and the load factor dropped 11.3 points to 57 percent.

Traffic on routes to and from North and South America dropped 27 percent to 35,000 tonnes, while Asia/Pacific volume was down 13.4 percent at 34,000 tonnes. The traditionally resilient Middle East/Africa network saw traffic off 8.2 percent at 13,000 tonnes. Short haul European traffic was hardest hit, falling 33.4 percent to 41,000 tonnes.

Lufthansa said it will seek a further 20 percent reduction in costs and slash investment budgets by 70 percent following earlier moves, which included cutting hours for 2,600 employees and ending leases on three freighters.

Grounding two MD-11s and putting an additional two freighters on stand-by has considerably cut fixed costs, the carrier said.

Air France-KLM’s cargo traffic retreated 18.5 percent in February and British Airways volume was 20.7 percent lower.

Lufthansa’s passenger traffic fell 9 percent in February to 4.7 million from 5.2 million a year ago.