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Leading German airline to cut capacity by 10 percent
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-22 20:52

FRANKFURT -- The leading German airline Lufthansa will cut its freight capacity by 10 percent in January owing to a marked drop in demand," it said on Monday, a further sign of the global economic slowdown.

A Lufthansa airliner is prepared at the airport in Duesseldorf, western Germany, as an Air Berlin plane takes off, July 2008. The leading German airline Lufthansa will cut its freight capacity by 10 percent in January owing to a marked drop in demand," it has said, a further sign of the global economic slowdown. [Agencies]

Lufthansa's own 19 air freighters are to continue flying, but the group said it would reduce its activities with partner World Airways, while expanding them with the German-Chinese group Jade Cargo International.

"Lufthansa Cargo is adjusting capacity to respond to currently difficult general economic conditions and a noticeable drop in demand," the statement quoted division head Carsten Spohr as saying.

Lufthansa Cargo is one of the largest air freight carriers, transporting 1.81 million tonnes in 2007 and employing 4,600 people.

In November however, its volume of freight fell by 9.8 percent from the same month one year earlier.