[22·09·2009]
LUFTHANSA Cargo plans to continue operating with a reduced freighter fleet in 2010 as the carrier does not anticipate the air freight market will recover in the next 12 months.
The prediction comes as sales and product director Andreas Otto expects air freight carriers to remain loss-making this year.
"The question is: will next year produce positive numbers? I would doubt that," he was quoted as saying in London's International Freighting Weekly.
On a brighter note, Mr Otto said there has been an improvement in recent weeks and he expected some kind of peak season, although at a lower level than in 2008.
With regard to capacity, Mr Otto said airlines had been too slow to react to the decline in volumes at the end of last year.
"It has taken many carriers a long time to take decisions to take out capacity," he was quoted as saying.
"Lufthansa Cargo was probably the first to announce it was taking out capacity in January.
"Most carriers started to take capacity out in the second quarter, and that [amount of capacity that has been grounded] is still not enough," he added.