Lufthansa Eyes $1 Billion Plus 2010 Profit

Germany's Lufthansa forecast an operating profit of more than $1.1 billion in 2010 compared with $180 million in 2009, driven by a strong rebound in cargo and long haul passenger traffic as well as cost cutting.

Europe's second largest airline boosted profit in the first nine months of the year to $845 million from $312 million in the year earlier period as revenue climbed 24.9 percent to $27.9 billion.

Net income in the nine months to September 30 soared to $723 million from $42.8 million in the same period in 2009.

By The Numbers: European Airlines' Freight Traffic.

Lufthansa's cargo unit swung to a record operating profit of $317.4 million from a year earlier loss of $276 million as revenue jumped 45 percent to $2.8 billion.

Lufthansa said it is bringing its last idled MD-11 freighter back into service ahead of schedule to boost capacity ahead of the pre-Christmas increase in demand.

The freight division, which includes Lufthansa Cargo, Swiss World Cargo and equity shares in China's Jade Cargo International and German cargo and express carrier AeroLogic, boosted third quarter revenue by 54.5 percent to just over $1 billion.

Cargo made a $118.7 million profit in the third quarter compared with a $91 million loss a year ago.

Lufthansa transported 1.3 million metric tons of freight and mail in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 19.4 percent from the 2009 period. The Americas network posted the biggest increase of 27.9 percent to just over 382,000 metric tons.

Third quarter traffic increased 19.2 percent to 474,000 metric tons.

Traffic measured in ton kilometers soared 22.8 percent year on year in the first three quarters. Capacity rose only 5.9 percent, boosting the load factor by 9.7 percentage points to 71.1 percent.

Yield per ton kilometer transported was 26.7 percent above last year's "crisis-induced" figure.

Lufthansa said it is optimistic about increasing revenue even further in the traditionally strong fourth quarter especially on the more profitable Asian routes.

"The rapid growth rates seen this year will increasingly taper off, however, due to the base effect caused by last year's slump in demand," Lufthansa said.