Lufthansa Cargo proved its resilience in the second quarter of this year, surpassing overall market performance despite reduced air cargo demand.
Average yields remained impressively 40% above 2019 levels, showcasing the company’s strength in navigating challenging times.
The freight capacity increased by six percent compared to the same period in 2022, mainly attributed to the recovery in passenger demand. As Lufthansa expanded its flight schedule to meet this rising demand, belly capacity for cargo also saw a notable increase.
When considering all airlines under the Lufthansa Group, including Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings, the capacity reached 3.8 billion available tonne-km, an 8.8% year-on-year increase. However, it was 14.8% lower than the second quarter of 2019, reflecting the industry’s ongoing challenges.
Revenue cargo tonne-km (RTK) experienced a 2.1% year-on-year growth, reaching 2.2 billion, but still remained 20.3% below the 2019 levels. The cargo load factor declined by 3.6 percentage points compared to the second quarter of the previous year, resulting in a load factor of 56.4, 3.9 points below the 2019 levels.
In comparison to the same period in 2022, the most significant capacity increase was observed in the Asia Pacific sector, rising by 28.9% to 1.4 billion. In this sector, RTK also saw a remarkable increase of 16.3% to 932 million. However, the Americas sector experienced a slight reduction in capacity, down by 1.7% year on year. The only routes that saw a slight improvement in the cargo load factor were those within Europe, with a 0.5 percentage point increase to 43%. Here, capacity rose by 12.9%, and RTKs increased by 14.2%.
Although Lufthansa Cargo’s Adjusted EBIT experienced a significant decrease to €37 million, down from €482 million in the second quarter of 2022, it still surpassed the results achieved in 2019. The first half-year’s Adjusted EBIT amounted to €188 million, down from €977 million in the same period of 2022.
As for the Lufthansa Group overall, total revenues in the second quarter witnessed a year-on-year increase of about 17%, and Adjusted EBT nearly tripled to €1.1 billion. This impressive performance indicated the Group’s efforts to rebound from the challenges posed by the pandemic and restore its financial standing.
