Lufthansa Cargo will press ahead with fleet and infrastructure modernisation, having posted its second-best result in the airline’s history in 2018.
Revenue was up €189 million to €2.7 billion and profits measured as adjusted EBIT increased €5 million to €268 million.
Yield per transported tonne of cargo was up 7%, while the volume of goods carried increased 1%.
Capacity rose 5.3%, which reduced load factors by 3.2 percentage points to 65.9%.
Peter Gerber, CEO and chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa Cargo says: “Our employees have shown full commitment and done an amazing job for our customers. The result gives us additional momentum for new investments in the future.”
Dr Martin Schmitt, board member for finance and human resources adds: “We managed to increase our revenue per unit and lower our unit costs last year. We will use the profit to modernise our means of production, which will further enhance our cost efficiency.”
Lufthansa Cargo will modernise fleet and sell capacity on four brand-new Boeing 777 Freighters, and infrastructure at the Frankfurt logistics centre will be upgraded.
Gerber says Lufthansa Cargo will drive digitisation and is the first cargo airline to offer customers completely paperless booking and handling for standard cargo.
He says: “With our new, fully digital PreCheck process, we will now significantly accelerate and simplify handling processes for our customers. And we will also continue to roll out the eDGD electronic dangerous goods declaration so that even more customers and shippers will be able to benefit from this digital solution.”
Looking ahead, Gerber says: “The current year, unlike 2018, is again characterised by the weakness typical of the logistics market in the early months of the year. Given low global economic growth, this is currently being exacerbated by reports of Brexit and trade disputes. This means we will again face challenges in 2019, but we remain upbeat about the quarters ahead.”
