Lufthansa Cargo

Lufthansa Cargo

IATA LH ICAO GEC Callsign LUFTHANSA CARGO
Founded	1994
Hubs	Frankfurt Airport
Secondary hubs	Rajiv Gandhi Int'l Airport Yemelyanovo Int'l Airport Tolmachevo Airport
Fleet size	20
Destinations	57
Company slogan	Networking the world.
Parent company	Lufthansa Group
Headquarters	Frankfurt, Germany
Key people	Peter Gerber (Chairman)
Website	lufthansa-cargo.com

Lufthansa Cargo AG is a German cargo airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa. It operates worldwide air freight and logistics services and is headquartered at Frankfurt Airport, the main hub of Lufthansa.^[1][2]

Lufthansa Cargo does not only operate dedicated cargo freighters, but also has access to the cargo capacities of more than 300 passenger aircraft of the Lufthansa Group.

History

Lufthansa had already operated a cargo subsidiary, called German Cargo, between 1977 and 1993 (earlier still, cargo operations were executed in-house, already under the Lufthansa Cargo name), when in an effort to restructure the company the cargo division was re-integrated into the mother concern, and split up into two parts (one for scheduled operations using Lufthansa-owned aircraft, and one for freight and logistics services using chartered or leased aircraft).

Thus, Lufthansa Cargo was created as a limited stock company on 30 November 2004, along with Lufthansa Cargo Charter. Concerning its airline codes, Lufthansa Cargo uses LH (the same IATA code as Lufthansa), as well as GEC (the former ICAO code of German Cargo). Lufthansa is unique compared to its major European competitors like British Airways and Air France in that the cargo business is organized in an entirely different airline entity. For some years, Lufthansa Cargo (including the freight transported in the cargo holds of mainline Lufthansa passenger aircraft) was the leading cargo airline in terms of international freight tonne-kilometres carried, but has meanwhile been surpassed by Cathay Pacific and Korean Air Cargo.

Operations and subsidiaries

D-ALFA, the first Boeing 777F delivered to Lufthansa Cargo, on final approach at Frankfurt Airport in 2013

As of 2011, all Lufthansa Cargo aircraft are based at Frankfurt Airport, the seventh busiest freight hub in the world, where the airline enjoys a strong co-operation with Fraport, the operator of the airport. Cargo facilities at the airport are divided into two places (Cargo City North and South), of which the first one is nearly exclusively used by Lufthansa Cargo.

In earlier years, Lufthansa Cargo had a secondary base at Leipzig/Halle Airport, the European hub for DHL Express, from where it operated flights on behalf of DHL. Activities at this airport gradually came to an end following the formation of AeroLogic as a joint venture between Lufthansa and DHL, which henceforth caters for the DHL flights, allowing Lufthansa Cargo to concentrate on other services.^[3]

In 2000, Lufthansa Cargo was a founding member of the WOW Alliance, a global cargo airline alliance, but left in 2007 as it did not see any benefits for the future.

Lufthansa Cargo used to operate a hub for intra-Asian flights at Astana International Airport in Kazakhstan, but was forced to relocate it to Yemelyanovo Airport in Russia in 2007, because otherwise the airline would have been banned from entering Russian airspace, in what was described as an act of economic blackmailing by the Russian authorities.^[4][5]

In 2008, Jade Cargo International founded as a joint venture between Shenzhen Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo, and the German Investment Corporation, a German governmental entity, thus allowing Lufthansa Cargo for a stronger presence in the Asian markets.

In May 2011, Lufthansa Cargo opened another hub at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, in order to transport temperature-sensitive goods, especially pharmaceuticals, between South East Asia and Europe (and onwards to the United States).^[6]

Destinations

As of October 2013, Lufthansa Cargo serves 57 cities worldwide with its cargo aircraft.^[7]

Fleet

Lufthansa Cargo McDonnell Douglas MD-11F

As of February 2015, the Lufthansa Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 15 years:^[8][9]

Fleet development

A former Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 747-200 featuring the WOW Alliance logo in 2004

The initial fleet of Lufthansa Cargo had previously belonged to German Cargo, and was expanded by cargo-converted former Lufthansa mainline Boeing 747-200s. From 1998, the airline began to gradually phase out all other aircraft types in favor of a fleet entirely consisting of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11.

Over the years, the following aircraft types were operated:^[8]

In March 2011, the order of five Boeing 777F was announced, the same aircraft type which had earlier been chosen for AeroLogic.^[10]

Accidents and incidents

• On 7 November 2004 at 16:35 local time, a Boeing 747-200 freighter, owned and operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic, overshot the runway upon take-off at Sharjah International Airport and was damaged beyond repair. The aircraft, registered TF-ARR, had been leased by Lufthansa Cargo to operate Flight 8457 to Frankfurt Airport. The pilots had decided to abort the take-off run even though the remaining runway length did not suffice to bring the aircraft to a halt because of a burst tyre and the ATC notification of an alleged fire (which turned out to be not true). The four persons on board were not injured.^[11]

• On 27 July 2010 at 11:38 local time, Lufthansa Cargo Flight 8460, an MD-11 registered D-ALCQ, crashed upon landing at King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and was damaged beyond repair in the ensuing fire. The Pilot in command and the First Officer — the only two persons on board — were able to leave the aircraft by themselves.^[12][13][14]

References

External links

Media related to Lufthansa Cargo at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website

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