Lufthansa Cargo revenue contribution leaps ahead with record result

The traffic revenue generated by the cargo division of Lufthansa Group accounted for almost 30% of the group’s overall transport revenue in 2020, as Lufthansa Cargo posted a historic adjusted EBIT of 772 million euros ($924 million) while the group recorded a net loss of around $8 billion for the year. Lufthansa Cargo’s EBIT performance was the best in its 26-year history, according to the company, which saw its revenue rise 11% year on year to around $3.3 billion. With Lufthansa Group’s total traffic revenue down by 68%, at $11 billion, cargo’s share — normally around 8% — jumped to 29%. [caption id="attachment_94867" align="alignright" width="560"] Lufthansa Cargo currently has nine 777Fs. (Photo/Lufthansa Cargo)[/caption] While overall cargo capacity was 36% lower than in 2019 due to the widespread grounding of passenger aircraft, and freight tonne kilometers dropped by 27% to 6.5 billion, Lufthansa Cargo’s yield grew by 57% and the load factor increased by 7.8 percentage points to 69.1%. Dorothea von Boxberg, who assumed the role of CEO and chair of the executive board of Lufthansa Cargo on March 1, said that the company’s success in 2020 enables “very decisive investments” in its future. “We want to make airfreight sustainably better and further strengthen our home base in Frankfurt,” she said in a release. “That is why we will gradually modernize our cargo center in the coming years and continue to drive forward digitalization along the entire transport chain.” The carrier’s supervisory board gave the green light in January for investments in a modular upgrade of the Lufthansa Cargo Center. Von Boxberg also revealed that the carrier will grow its own freighter fleet to ten 777Fs with the arrival of another aircraft this fall. Lufthansa Cargo told our sister publication Cargo Facts that this freighter is not a new Boeing order but will be sourced from the used market . Lufthansa Cargo took on two new 777Fs and removed three MD-11Fs from service in 2020. Another was withdrawn in February, leaving three that are currently scheduled to be phased out by the end of the third quarter this year, von Boxberg told journalists during a video call. The carrier decided last year to postpone the retirement of the MD-11F fleet to address the lack of capacity in the market. Von Boxberg also said during the call that Lufthansa does not expect COVID-19 vaccine shipments to account for a substantial share of its traffic this year, given their relatively small volumes. Soon after the onset of the pandemic last year, Lufthansa began operating passenger A330s and A350s on cargo-only flights, and even reconfigured at least 10 A330s in May 2020 to increase cargo volume. Although Lufthansa has essentially stopped passenger-freighter operations for now, von Boxberg noted the importance of cargo for many of the airline’s passenger routes, highlighting the Bogota (BOG) flight that makes a stop in Punta Cana (PUJ) to pick up additional cargo on the way back to Frankfurt (FRA). “That would have been unheard of before,” she said.

Lufthansa Cargo revenue contribution leaps ahead with record result

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