Lufthansa Cargo hopes to sign another airline partnership to build on the success of last year’s tie-up with Japan’s ANA and take advantage of the favourable environment for German exports, the freight arm of the German airline said yesterday.
With fuel prices low and a weak euro supporting exports from Germany, Lufthansa Cargo is expecting a good year. “The first two months were good,” Chief Executive Peter Gerber told Reuters after the company’s annual press conference yesterday.
“The German export industry is being helped by falling energy costs and the weak euro. Strong exports are good for us and so I’m optimistic,” he said.
Germany’s BGA trade association raised its forecast for exports last week, expecting the weaker euro to offset uncertainty surrounding crises in Greece and Ukraine.
Lufthansa Cargo also said the ANA partnership, which started in December, had enabled it to send an extra 300 consignments via the Japanese carrier that it would otherwise not have been able to take on because its planes were already full.
The partnership so far covers routes from Japan but will be expanded to include service from Europe this summer.
Gerber told journalists the company was in talks with other parties interested in a similar partnership but declined to give further details due to the anti-trust approvals needed for such revenue-sharing partnerships. Lufthansa’s Cargo arm last year saw adjusted earnings before interest and tax rise by a quarter to €123mn ($131.6mn) after a strong end to the year. It expects a slight increase this year. However, the company is waiting on several investment decisions.
