Lufthansa Cargo saw its cargo volumes continue to slide with a 19.9 per cent drop in March from a year ago to 123,000 tonnes from 154,000 tonnes in March 2008. For the first three months of the year volumes are down 23.4 per cent to 328,000 tonnes.

The cargo division cut capacity by 4.7 per cent and saw an 11.4 point drop in the load factor to 57.6 per cent. But the carrier has also recently launched a weekly freighter service between Frankfurt and Hanoi, along with a weekly MD-11 flight to Hyderabad.

Overall, the Lufthansa group, including Swiss World Cargo, saw March volumes drop by 19.6 per cent to 140,000 tonnes with first quarter volumes down 22.7 per cent at 375,000 tonnes.

Group volumes on the Americas trade were down 25.9 per cent at 38,000 tonnes, while Asia Pacific volumes fell 14.7 per cent, also to 38,000 tonnes.

Lufthansa has parked four of its 19 MD-11 freighters, cut hours for 2,600 ground workers, frozen recruitment and trimmed budgets in response to the ailing market conditions.