Lufthansa unable to sell all freight capacity increase in June

[BERLIN] German airline group Lufthansa reported a 4.3 per cent increase in sales on the passenger side in June but was unable to sell the extra freight space it offered during the month, it said in its monthly traffic report on Thursday.

Global air freight demand has been slowing in recent months as economies stutter, after a promising start to the year, figures from air industry association IATA show.

Lufthansa said that in June freight capacity at its Lufthansa Cargo unit rose by 2.9 per cent, driven by space in the bellies of its passenger planes, but sales dropped by 0.9 per cent. Cargo load factors, or how full its planes are, dropped 2.5 percentage points.

On the passenger side, capacity growth was slower than sales at 3.2 per cent and the load factor increased 0.9 per centage points to 83 per cent.

REUTERS