Lufthansa Cargo more than triples Q3 profit to €162mn
Revenue climbs 26 percent to €1.04 billion as yields jump 22 percent and the load factor rises three points.
Lufthansa Cargo more than tripled its operating profit in the third quarter of 2026. Adjusted EBIT rose to €162 million from €49 million a year earlier. Air freight demand stayed high against the backdrop of the crisis in the Middle East, and yields were 22 percent above the prior year. Revenue grew 26 percent to €1.04 billion, and the adjusted EBIT margin widened 9.6 percentage points to 15.6 percent, compared with 6.0 percent in Q3 2025.
Capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (ACTKs), rose 5 percent to 4.01 billion. The growth came mainly from ITA Airways belly capacity. Traffic grew faster: the volume of cargo shipped rose 7 percent, and cargo tonne kilometres (CTKs) increased 11 percent to 2.55 billion. As a result, the cargo load factor improved 3.0 percentage points to 63.5 percent.
Gregor Schleussner, Lufthansa Cargo’s CFO and CHRO, said: “Strong results are never a given. They come from making the right decisions, staying close to our customers and acting decisively as one team. That is exactly what our colleagues have demonstrated.”
The results came in a busy quarter for the airline’s commercial and infrastructure plans. Lufthansa Cargo signed an agreement to acquire LUG aircargo handling GmbH, a move it says will strengthen its infrastructure for future growth. And recently it completed the acquisition of LUG aircargo handling following the receipt of all necessary antitrust approvals, making the cargo handling company a wholly owned subsidiary. On the product side, it added a new “Emergency” Add-on Service to its modular portfolio. The service gives critical shipments absolute priority.
Lufthansa Cargo’s performance helped the Lufthansa Group to the highest quarterly revenue in its history. Group revenue rose 9 percent to €12.2 billion, from €11.2 billion a year earlier. Adjusted EBIT climbed 6 percent to €1.4 billion, from €1.3 billion, even though fuel costs rose by €543 million. The group’s adjusted EBIT margin slipped to 11.5 percent from 11.9 percent. Net income rose to €1.3 billion from €966 million.
Lufthansa Technik also beat its prior-year result by a wide margin. Its revenue rose 20 percent to €2.3 billion, and its adjusted EBIT grew 54 percent to €200 million.
Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said: “The past quarter was the strongest in terms of revenue in the history of the Lufthansa Group. We succeeded in increasing operating profit by six percent compared to the previous year. With rising revenues amid consistently high demand and strict cost discipline, we were able to more than offset the increase in fuel costs of approximately half a billion euros.”
Till Streichert, Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, credited “the strong earnings contributions from Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Technik” for the group improving its result. The group has refined its full-year adjusted EBIT forecast to between €1.7 billion and €2.0 billion. Streichert said where the final figure lands “will depend not only on fuel costs and demand but, in particular, on Lufthansa Cargo’s earnings performance in the fourth quarter.”
The third-quarter result follows a strong first half. Lufthansa Cargo’s adjusted EBIT rose 47 percent to €199 million in H1 2026, on revenue up 16 percent at €1.92 billion. The airline is also modernising its Frankfurt hub. In June it began operating ALPHA, the first phase of its roughly €600 million LCCevo project, which includes a fully automated 42-metre high-bay warehouse with almost 3,000 pallet positions. The project aims to make the Lufthansa Cargo Center Europe’s most modern air cargo hub by 2030.
