LUFTHANSA CARGO POSTS RECORD PROFIT

LUFTHANSA CARGO POSTS RECORD PROFIT    Lufthansa Cargo AG reported a record pre-tax profit for its 2002 financial year, despite price pressures and declining tonnage.
   The German air cargo airline said its pre-tax profit totaled 582.3 million euros ($626.4 million), while profit from operating activities was 127.6 million euros ($137.3 million). Revenues were off 3.6 percent to 2.35 billion euros ($2.53 billion).
   '2002 was characterized by the imponderables affecting global politics, the continuing economic downturn at home and abroad and record stock-market plunges,' said Jean-Peter Jansen, executive board chairman. 'The fact that we nonetheless succeeded in returning such a good result is proof of Lufthansa Cargo's outstanding competitiveness.'
   Lufthansa Cargo said profits were driven by 'unchanged price levels, various measures to boost efficiency and lower costs and an active portfolio policy.'
   A great benefit to the airline was selling off its remaining 25-percent stake in DHL International Ltd. to Deutsche Post in December, which resulted in 'tax-free book profits of over 400 million euros.'
   The company said it would not venture to offer a forecast for the 2003 business year, noting the questionable economic climate in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, the United States and Japan, as well as the outbreak of war in Iraq.