Lufthansa Cargo boosted freight traffic by 13.8 per cent in April from a year ago despite a five-day shutdown of its Frankfurt hub. The German carrier handled 129,000 tonnes of cargo compared with 113,000 tonnes in April 2009, taking volume for the first four months to 520,000 tonnes compared to 441,000 tonnes in the same period a year ago. Lufthansa Cargo increased cargo revenue by 25.3 per cent in April and improved its load factor, or capacity utilisation, by 13.3 percentage points to 72.3 per cent — above the pre-crisis level of April 2008 for the second month running.