Lufthansa Cargo 2024 operating profit up 15% on e-commerce boost

Lufthansa Cargo reported a 15 percent increase in operating profit to €251 million in 2024 of which the fourth quarter alone accounted for €199 million, the best fourth quarter in the company's history outside of the years affected by the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 to 2022).

Revenue increased by 10 percent to €3.26 billion (previous year: €2.98 billion), says an official release.

"A total of 13.7 billion freight tonne-kilometers (+nine percent) were offered last year. Sales increased by 14 percent year-on-year to 8.5 billion freight tonne-kilometers. The average load factor improved by 2.7 percentage points to 61.9 percent (previous year: 59.2 percent)."

The new corporate strategy - BOLD MOVES - contributed to the company's success in 2024, the release added. "With a three-year horizon, it aims to firmly establish Lufthansa Cargo among the top five leading cargo airlines worldwide. The cargo airline focuses on three main areas: improving quality, customer satisfaction and cost efficiency, based on profitable and sustainable growth as well as further developing the corporate culture."

Within less than twelve months, the company developed a comprehensive e-commerce solution in collaboration with its subsidiaries heyworld, CB Customs Broker and local customs authorities, enabling customers to smoothly and compliantly import e-commerce shipments into Germany, the release added.

"Additionally, Lufthansa Cargo offered approximately 29 percent more freighter capacity to Asia during the high season in the fourth quarter (compared to the same period of the previous year) to meet high demand. New stations, Shenzhen and Zhengzhou, were added to the freighter network to support important e-commerce supply chains from China to Germany."

Ashwin Bhat, CEO, Lufthansa Cargo says: "Our BOLD MOVES strategy proved crucial to Lufthansa Cargo's success in 2024. We were able to demonstrate two things last year: our speed of innovation focused on customer needs and our flexibility in quickly responding to market developments. Therefore, I am optimistic about 2025 – a year that will continue to be characterised by uncertainties and unpredictable events. With BOLD MOVES and our employees, we are well-positioned to meet these challenges and successfully deliver on our mission - Enabling Global Business."

Frank Bauer, Chief Financial Officer and Labour Director, Lufthansa Cargo adds: "We initiated and successfully implemented a variety of measures in 2024 to further enhance our quality and especially our customer satisfaction. At the same time, we are strongly focused on cost efficiency and productivity to mitigate increased location costs and inflation-related cost increases. This improves our competitiveness in a highly contested market."

In the current fiscal year 2025, Lufthansa Cargo will continue to focus on expanding its offerings with partners ITA Airways and Swiss WorldCargo, the release added. "Lufthansa Cargo also aims to focus more on industry-specific solutions for the automotive, healthcare and semiconductor sectors to unlock growth potential. Strong demand is also anticipated for the e-commerce sector this year."

The €600 million investment project LCCevo, which aims to develop Lufthansa Cargo's Frankfurt hub into Europe's leading air freight hub by 2030, will continue to be pursued this year, the release added.

As well as its own twelve Boeing 777F cargo aircraft and four Airbus A321Fs, Lufthansa Cargo uses the belly capacities of Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines and SunExpress to transport freight, Lufthansa Group said in its annual report.

"In addition, the AeroLogic joint venture in Leipzig operates 22 Boeing 777F cargo aircraft on behalf of its two shareholders, Lufthansa Cargo and DHL Express. Lufthansa Cargo is responsible for marketing the capacities of six of these aircraft.

"Lufthansa Cargo also has successful international partnerships with the cargo divisions of Cathay Pacific and United Airlines. Cooperation with All Nippon Airways was suspended in October 2023."

Group operating profit down 39%, revenue up 6%
Lufthansa Group reported an operating profit of €1.6 billion for 2024, down 39 percent from €2.7 billion reported in 2023.

"The decline compared to the previous year is due to various effects, particularly in the first half of the year: strikes weighed on the passenger airlines with around €450 million," says an official release.

"The airlines also had to absorb a significant decline in average yields at the beginning of the summer due to the large industry-wide increase in capacity. Significantly higher costs, especially in Germany, also had a negative impact. Productivity in flight operations also suffered from further delays in aircraft deliveries. Also thanks to lower interest burdens compared to the previous year, the net profit fell less sharply than the operating result and reached €1.4 billion (previous year: €1.7 billion)."

With €37.6 billion, an increase of six percent, Lufthansa Group achieved the strongest revenue year in the company's history, thanks to a new peak in load factor, the release added.

Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa says: "Looking back, 2024 was a year of two halves for the Lufthansa Group. In the first six months, we still had to cope with a significant decline in operating profit – due, among other things, to strikes, delayed aircraft deliveries and operational challenges at our hubs. The trend was reversed in the course of the year with two consecutive quarters in which we generated revenue of over €10 billion each for the first time, and in the fourth quarter we exceeded the previous year's profit."

For 2025, the Lufthansa Group expects net capital expenditure of between €2.7-3.3 billion, and the group is expecting operating profit in 2025 to be significantly higher than in the previous year, the release added.