LUFTHANSA Cargo has recorded a year-on-year decline in freight volumes of 9.2 per cent in the first six months of 2012.
The major German carrier transported 864,490 tonnes of cargo this year compared with 953,000 during the same period in 2011.
However, the company’s load factor only slipped marginally by 0.7 percentage points to 68.4 per cent.
Lufthansa Cargo chief executive officer Karl Ulrich Garnadt, states: “There can be no talk as yet of a real crisis. Extreme volatility has been a hallmark of our industry for some time now and we know how we have to deal with it.
“[We] temporarily suspends flights from our schedule or close down routes permanently when they cease to be financially viable. This flexible, demand-driven management of our capacities is one of our strengths that we are also relying on now.”
The airline serves more than 300 destinations in almost 100 countries with its own freighter fleet, bellyhold capacity of passenger aircraft operated by Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines and a road feeder service network.
The bulk of the carrier’s airport-to-airport business is routed through Frankfurt International Airport.
