Give us night flights at Frankfurt or we risk failing — Lufthansa

Friday, 09 February 2007

LUFTHANSA Cargo’s chief has warned that the airline could be battling to survive unless the go ahead is given for night flights at Frankfurt airport.

“The prerequisite for growth and innovation is a functioning environment at our home base at Frankfurt airport,” said Carsten Spohr, after the carrier announced “a very good financial result and buoyant growth” in fiscal 2006.
“A practicable night-flight ruling there (Frankfurt) is essential for the survival of Lufthansa Cargo and crucially important for keeping Germany, as a logistics location, on a competitive footing,” said Spohr, the airline’s chief executive officer and chairman.

“At stake are 3700 direct and indirect jobs at Lufthansa Cargo.”

Spohr said that since mid-2006, the airline had been growing above the IATA market average. “The company is performing excellently in the world market and continuing to be a major force in the global air freight industry. We intend to sustain that momentum and advance further in 2007 in the interests of our customers and shareholders”
The airline sees “outstanding prospects for growth in the offing” on the Asian continent, with India and China in particular having emerged as attractive air freight markets with annual growth rates of up to 10 per cent.

In its summer flight schedules this year, Lufthansa Cargo is increasing its freighter frequencies to Shanghai, while Lahore in Pakistan will be a newcomer to its network. The carrier is also expanding its network to Korea with the addition of Busan as a new destination, which will be served by three-weekly flights operated ex-Munich by Lufthansa passenger aircraft. 

In 2006, Lufthansa Cargo posted an operating profit of EUR81.5 million compared with EUR108.2 million the previous year. Revenues rose on the year-earlier level by 3.4 per cent to EUR2.845 billion (EUR2.752 in 2005).

The cargo load factor improved by 2.7 percentage points to 67.7 per cent.

Freight volumes in 2006 were up on the 2005 level by 1.3 per cent to 1.76 million tonnes of cargo and mail. Sales grew by 3.5 per cent to 8.1 billion tonne-kilometres. Yields fell on the prior-year by a marginal -0.4 per cent, while traffic revenues increased by 3.6 per cent to EUR2.7 billion.

In 2007, the carrier is expecting an operating profit significantly higher than earnings last year, which it said were depressed by non-recurring items.

The business environment would nonetheless remain challenging. “The international cargo industry still has to contend with the imbalance in trade flows, increasingly fierce competition, high fuel prices and the need to comply with growing security requirements,” said the airline.

Meanwhile, the carrier is increasing its freighter frequencies to Dallas, Sao Paulo and Shanghai in its summer timetable effective 25 March. New destinations include Lahore and a direct connection from Cologne through  East Midlands (UK) to Wilmington (USA). Additional belly capacities will come on stream from Lufthansa’s introduction of passenger flights to Busan (South Korea) and extra frequencies to Caracas, Denver and Shanghai.

In its freighter timetable the carrier is raising frequencies to Dallas from two to three weekly. The additional service is on Wednesdays.  Sao Paulo will be served by six flights weekly from Frankfurt, the extra service is on Mondays. Frequencies to Shanghai will be increased from eight to nine weekly, with the addition to the timetable of services on Fridays. Changes also are forthcoming in traffic days to Los Angeles. In the summer (northern) flight schedules, Los Angeles will be served twice weekly — on Wednesdays and Saturdays.