Lufthansa Cargo has revealed that it has posted a significant increase in the volume of freight and mail that it transported through the first nine months of the year, with the cargo carrier boosting tonnage by 8.4 per cent when compared with 2010.
According to the German group, capacity grew substantially, particularly in the first half of the year and had risen 12.3 per cent by the end of the January-September period.
Sales enjoyed a sharp increase of 9.5 per cent, with Lufthansa able to achieve a high level of capacity utilisation.
'Lufthansa Cargo is well positioned in an increasingly demanding market environment,' noted chairman and CEO Karl Ulrich Garnadt. 'After the very strong growth rates in the first half of the year, our transport performance in the third quarter stabilised at the very high prior-year level. Thanks to excellent product quality and our fast and flexible capacity management, we also succeeded in maintaining a high load factor in the third quarter.
The group reported that it had earned an operating profit of €173m for the nine-month period, even though the rapid growth rates of recent months could not be maintained.
