Lufthansa

[crewdog]

Just heard that Lufthansa Cargo,is going to put two B-747 in storage.
Can anybody confirm this,or have more info?

[CR2]

Not suprised. I hear LH cargo is losing money at the moment. Tough times in the freighter world.
Also heard they've closed their hub in SHJ.

[MaxDiff]

FYI, LH/SQ freight Ops at SHJ still going at present.
BRGDS Max :cool:

[Ludde]

Yes , this can be confirmed
Lufthansa is putting at least two B-747 out of service, prob going to Marana or somewhere there! :rolleyes:

[CR2]

Hi Max,
So what's the story with Sharjah?

[Fuel to Noise]

Does LH put the aircraft temporarily out of service or permanent?
What's up about the pilot situation, are they still missing pilots?

Fly safe
:cool:

[Hunter58]

F2N

they will keep them in 'active' duty as operational reserves. This means that they don't have crews or mechanics planned for them, but keep them and use them whenever need arises. I guess they will cover some check times with them and not wet-lease equipment as they did in the past.

If I had to chose between an MD11 and a 747 to fly a typical route, i'd go for the MD11 any time, as it costs around 35% less than the 74 to transport 10% less (in real life!). Only in the most volumetric environment you take the 747.

[freightdoggy dog]

Whats the story with SHJ?
When we flew out in June, Lufty were taking
800kgs on a 747 to FRA.That doesn,t even pay for the catering.

[Huck]

To Hunter58:

problem is, we're running a bit of a surplus in 747 freighters these days. I fly ACMI MD11's, and we're being undercut by 74 -200's these days! Any idea how long this can go on? I too think that the Mighty Dog is the ultimate freighter, until the 777 conversions start....

[wonderbusdriver]

It´s true.

One 742 is being taken out of service this month, the next a few months later.
One will be put into storage - where, I don´t know.
All because of falling demand/yields.

But then they´re also supposed to get 4 combis from DLH-pax for future growth.
Since the "improved" 744-600 (?)F never materialized, and they only wanted "affordable" MD11s with CF6 engines (and thus pneumatic reversers etc.), cargo doors as large as on the MD11F (are the "conversion" doors smaller?), these rather "inexpensive-to-finance" 742 combis seem very likely to come.

Besides that, the MD11 is a pain to load/unload, especially with heavy pallets.
Getting high-yield/heavy outsized cargo into them is next to impossible anyway.
The smaller time-critical load is flown on pax planes mostly anyway (A340-600 has twice the belly cap of a 744pax - and LH is getting quite a few of those).

The SHJ-hub hasn´t changed, and from the planning I saw last week will stay.

The pilot situation hasn´t changed - the 742 reduction making things even worse in the short run. The number of duty days is the problem not the hours. Off days en route and dead-heading will become worse, crew effectiveness in terms of block-hours going down the drain.

LH-pax, Cargo and Condor are still desperate for pilots...
If you don´t fit the requirements for employment, don´t get your hopes up, though, they won´t change. - sorry

[CR2]

Some LH bits from Reuters.

Lufthansa hits 2-yr low on profit warning fears
By Jeff Mason
FRANKFURT, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Lufthansa AG <LHAG.F> shares hit two-year lows on Monday as investors awaited dismal first -half results while the airline's July traffic numbers reinforced fears the carrier could issue its second profit warning this year.
By 1409 GMT Lufthansa shares were down 5.8 percent at 16.57 euros, after falling as low as 16.42 euros -- their lowest level since August 1999. The shares led decliners on the blue-chip DAX index <.GDAXI>, which fell 0.84 percent.
Lufthansa reports first-half earnings figures on Wednesday, and analysts fear the airline may reduce its current operating profit forecast for 2001 as the weak economy, rising fuel costs and expensive personnel pay deals hit results.
The German airline's first-half operating profit is seen falling 70 percent to 104 million euros ($95.24 million) from 349 million euros in the year-earlier period, according to the average forecast of six analysts polled by Reuters.
"Everybody know that these figures definitely won't be good. That's no secret," said Juergen Pieper, analyst at Bankhaus Metzler in Frankfurt. "Some still suspect that there could be another profit warning."
A spokeswoman for the airline declined to comment on the share fall or the possibility of a warning. Reeling from an expensive pilots pay deal and the effects of a global economic slowdown, Lufthansa in June warned that operating profit for the year would come in between 700 and 750 million euros -- down from its earlier forecast of one billion.
Earlier this month the airline announced it would cut its capacity growth to three percent from seven percent but stuck to its earlier profit forecasts.
In a research note, Commerzbank Securities said it expected the airline to cut forecasts again.
"Although Lufthansa cut its own forecasts earlier in the year we believe that the Q2 results will coincide with a further reduction in expectations," the bank said, adding it would maintain its "reduce" recommendation on the stock.
TRAFFIC FIGURES EXACERBATE FEARS
Analysts said the airline's latest traffic figures, released late on Friday, heightened fears there would not be an upturn in the second half of the year.
On Friday, Lufthansa said that passenger numbers in July rose 2.9 percent from the same month a year ago to 4.38 million -- the lowest increase of any month this year, excluding May when three pilot strikes grounded planes, analysts said.
The airline said the volume of cargo and mail carried in July dropped 8.3 percent to 135,000 tonnes. It has decided to ground two freighters over the next few months in response to the weakening world economy.
"Any hopes of any improvement in the second half obviously are fading or have faded with these July traffic figures," one analyst said.
"There's no sign of any recovery in those numbers. If anything, they're worse than they have been all year."
Lufthansa shares have lost 40 percent since hitting this year's high of 27.50 euros on January 2.

-Lufthansa Cargo July Americas traffic falls 16.6 pct
FRANKFURT, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Lufthansa Cargo AG saw its
slump in business in the Americas gather pace last month with a
16.6 percent year-on-year decline in two-way cargo volumes,
parent company Deutsche Lufthansa AG said.
This compared to an already heavy 11.1 percent fall in June
as the slowing U.S. economy impacted on demand for cargo
capacity.
The 4.6 percent decline in volumes carried last month to and
from Asia, however, represented a slower fall than in June when
its Asia tonnage dropped 10.7 percent, the latest Lufthansa
monthly traffic report showed.

Lufthansa Cargo July load factor down 9.2 pp to 59 pct
FRANKFURT, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Lufthansa Cargo saw its load
factor slump 9.2 percentage points to 59.0 percent last month
and ended the first seven months down 6.0 percentage points at
61.6 percent, parent company Deutsche Lufthansa AG said.

[Hunter58]

Huck

WO or GR? Must be GR as you fly and don't camp...! :)

[Huck]

You bet. Bill's Flying Club. Beats working....

[CR2]

LH apparently flew a 41000KG pallet FRA-ICN last night (ship's prop shaft). According to Reuter's, on a B747-400F (Atlas??).
I'd be VERY interested in seeing the tie-down calcultions for that.
I flew a 39T generator to SCL on a -400 about two years ago; the calculations were a nightmare.

[Hunter58]

Huck

left of right? And since when? Just trying to figure if I know you.

Oh, if you run into Vance Toalson these days, tell him he should finally come and refill his humidor in Basel!

[CargoOne]

CR2,
you mean problems with balance?
really big problems? 40t is just 1/3 of max payload for -400.. doing that on an124 you can just put this piece "somewhere in the middle" of maindeck and you will be within limitations... ;) ok, ok, not so easy but not a nightmare anyway. what's wrong with -400?

[CR2]

Nah, problem with the -400 is tie-down. Linear & area limits no problem; its the 20" spacing between tiedowns. Boeing in their wisdom have arranged for a higher floor-limit than the -200, with less tie-down possibilities (seat-tracks blocked).

[hailstone]

CR2
that would be very interesting indeed.
can you share it on this site when / if you get it ?