“An extraordinary year”
2020 was rather special for all of us, but it wasn’t very good for all that many of us. It was for full-freighter operator Cargolux, however – not only because it turned 50.
In its 2020 anniversary year Cargolux (see also page 6 of ITJ 17-18 / 2020) made a profit of USD 768.7 million. The figure represents 31.5% of the carrier’s sales of USD 3.171 billion and a significant increase vis-à-vis the previous year, when profits came to a ‘mere’ USD 20 million (5.1% ebit margin). The figures are all the more impressive in the light of the rather gloomy prospects a year ago – also for airlines that focus exclusively on airfreight activities. The outbreak of Covid-19 initially crippled industrial production in China, where Luxembourg-based Cargolux runs its second hub, namely in Zhengzhou. The subsequent termination of many long-haul passenger flights resulted in unheard-of capacity bottlenecks. Cargolux was quick to respond with charter flights when the call came for capacities to satisfy massive demand for the transportation of personal protective equipment, flying goods from Shanghai to Geneva, for example (see also ITJ Daily of 9 April 2020).
A uniform and flexible fleet
In its statement at the end of April the airline said that it is “proud of the fact that we honoured all blocked-space agreements with our customers that were concluded in 2019, when market conditions were significantly less favourable.” It achieved this by increasing its block hours by 2.4% to a total of 140,584, during which time it transported 1.107 million t of airfreight (+5%). In 2021 Cargolux is ranked fourth in Iata’s list of the top 25 scheduled cargo carriers. The airline managed to improve its load factor by 3 percentage points to 68.7%, whilst its increased efforts also enabled it to improve its fuel efficiency by 3% in 2020 – despite increased activity throughout the year.
At the end of December last year the airline’s overall fleet included 30 aeroplanes, with 16 Boeing B747-400Fs (ten B747-400Fs and six B747-400ERFs) and 14 B747-8Fs. Word from Luxembourg has it that “this uniform fleet enabled us to respond to changing market conditions in a flexible and timely manner.”
President and chief executive officer Richard Forson had already provided a glimpse of the future last autumn (see ITJ Daily of 26 November 2020), when he revealed that his airline is looking to Boeing B777Fs, now that the end of B747 production has been announced for next year. At least the airline can be sure that major freight capacities will continue to be in demand worldwide in the medium term.
