Lufthansa Grounds Freighters

London – Lufthansa, Europe’s second largest airline, idled four freighters as part of a plan to cut capacity by 20 percent amid an accelerating decline in traffic across its global network.

Lufthansa Cargo, the carrier’s independent freight unit, grounded two of its fleet of nineteen MD-11 freighters at Leipzig/Halle airport.

It parked another two aircraft at its Frankfurt hub which won’t fly but will be maintained so they can restart service immediately when demand picks up.

Lufthansa, which expects the global economic crisis to affect its cargo business into 2010, did not rule out laying up additional aircraft if demand continues to fall. Traffic tumbled a record 24.3 percent in January from a year ago, following a 21.4 percent drop in December.

Lufthansa originally cut 10 percent of its capacity in January but the steep decline in volume forced further reductions. It suspended the wet lease of two MD-11s and one Boeing 747 extended range freighter from US-based World Airways and transferred routes operated by the planes to China’s Jade Cargo International in which it has a 25 percent stake.

Lufthansa also reduced the working hours of 2,600 of its 4,500 employees, cut overtime, froze recruitment and trimmed budgets.

Air France-KLM, Lufthansa’s closet European rival, earlier grounded four freighters.