2012 was an extraordinarily challenging year of ups, downs and sideways moves for all-cargo airline Cargolux.
Richard Forson, stand-in president and chief executive (CEO), admits the beleaguered airfreight company’s performance last year will result in a loss ‘albeit better than they budgeted for’.
The CEO argues that several elements, such as macro-economics, hampered the carrier’s effectiveness. “Our performance was adversely impacted by a number of factors,” he declares in a Cargolux internal publication.
“These included a worsening of the Eurozone crisis, a deepening of the global slowdown – allied with high fuel prices – and a mismatch between capacity supply and demand, thus putting load factors and yields under increasing pressure as we continued to operate in a highly competitive market.”
The Luxembourg government has recently thrown Cargolux a lifeline by temporarily acquiring Qatar Airways’ 35 per cent stake – the Middle East airline bailed out last November – until a new long-term shareholder can be found.
Despite the European cargo carrier’s continued woes, Forson is quick to point out in his end-of-year message that Cargolux will continue to forge ahead with implementing its ‘strategy for sustainable growth’.
Read more in the next edition of Air Cargo News (14 January, issue 743).