Lufthansa Cargo has seen the toll of the collapsed cargo market leave a trail of red ink across the group’s Logistics Division with profits over the first three quarters crashing from a 2008 profit of €160 million to a 2009 loss of €200 million.

According to Stephan Gemkow, Lufthansa Group’s chief financial officer, capacity utilisation recovered in the third quarter of the year, “but this was only possible at considerably reduced rates”.

Revenue per tonne/kilometre was down by over 23 per cent and consequently profits over the three quarters crashed. The company has reduced its costs base within the logistics division but the outlook remained “distinctly negative”.

Average yield was down 23.8 per recent from the corresponding period in 2008. Lufthansa’s total cargo traffic, including SwissWorldCargo, dropped 15.4 per cent to 1.23 million tonnes from 1.45 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2008.

The decline in cargo volume slowed to 6.3 per cent in the third quarter to 443,000 tonnes from 472,000 tonnes. “But revenue is still falling steeply as a result of the price erosion since the summer,” Lufthansa said.

The load factor was five percentage points lower in the first nine months at 61.4 per cent compared with last year but gained 3.4 points in the third quarter to 66.5 per cent.

Lufthansa said it recently halted the decline in freight rates and was “able to adjust prices across the board.” But it forecast much lower revenue and substantial operating losses for the current financial year.

“In view of the global economic crisis there can still be no all-clear for the airfreight industry,” the carrier said.

Cost cutting measures, including short time working for 2,600 ground employees, reductions in cargo capacity and budget controls, absorbed more than 50 per cent of the “drastic” decline in revenue.

By the end of October Lufthansa Cargo had grounded four of its 19 MD- 11 freighters for at least a year. But it is adding services in specific markets including Mexico, Colombia and Brazil and launched a Chicago-Amsterdam service to link with the Europe-Asia network of its 25 per cent owned Chinese carrier Jade Cargo.