Interesting tidbit in the paper this morning. I had been wondering why we weren't keeping some widebody capacity flying for cargo. Now we know. Hummmm who flys lots of A380s.........

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Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- A recovery in demand for cargo shipments is failing to lift prices as bigger passenger jets like the A380 superjumbo create a glut of belly space, crimping margins at Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Delta Air Lines Inc.

Air freight rose 0.2 percent in December, year-on-year, after shrinking most months since mid-2010, the International Air Transport Association said Feb. 1. Still, the load factor, a measure of cargo-hold utilization, was stuck at 48.1 percent.

"The more capacity is put into the market, the more profits will be under pressure," said Karl Ulrich Garnadt, cargo chief at Lufthansa, the biggest freight carrier among passenger airlines. "All wide-body planes have an impact."

The revival in cargo traffic, which generated sales of about $66 billion in 2011, was led by an order surge in the weeks before Christmas. Airlines need to turn the rebound into improved profitability amid slowing gains in passenger travel, which can lag cargo trends by months.

Shares of Cologne, Germany-based Lufthansa, Europe's second-largest airline, have advanced 22 percent so far this year after falling 44 percent in 2011. Delta is up 36 percent. Memphis-based FedEx Corp., the No. 1 cargo carrier, has gained almost 13 percent, while United Parcel Service Inc. of Atlanta, the largest package-delivery business, has climbed 5.2 percent.

Read more: Airlines Ponder Careful What's Wished for in A380 Glut: Freight