Lufthansa Cargo Traffic Decline Slows to 3.1 Percent

Lufthansa Cargo carried 3.1 percent less cargo in October than a year ago, an improvement on the two previous months, as growth in the Americas network couldn’t offset the overall decline of the global freight market.

The decline, to 165,000 metric tons, was coupled with a smaller 1.2 percent decrease in revenue on 1.1 percent growth in capacity. That resulted in the load factor dipping 1.6 points to 69 percent.

Traffic for the first 10 months of the year was up 7 percent at 1.56 million tons. The lower October traffic followed declines of 5.1 percent and 3.6 percent in September and August, respectively.

The Lufthansa Group, which includes Swiss and the U.K.’s bmi, also booked a 3.1 percent decline in cargo volume to 185,000 tons, leaving 10 months traffic up 6.8 percent at 1.77 million tons.

Cargo revenue shrunk 1.4 percent in October on 1.8 percent higher capacity, trimming the load factor by 2.2 points to 66.8 percent.

The Americas was the only region that grew traffic in October, with a 1.7 percent increase to 59,000 tons that contrasted with a 5.6 percent drop in Asia/Pacific shipments to 50,000 tons.

-- Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.