Lufthansa Cargo

2009

October - Lufthansa Cargo and Hermes Transport Logistics announced that they were increasing their level of cooperation. Since early August, Lufthansa had handled the logistics of all incoming shipments arriving at Leipzig Airport for the wholly-owned subsidiary of the otto group. Aside from handling all imports, Lufthansa Cargo was responsible for arranging and loading truck transports to the Hermes bases at Haldensleben und Altenkunstadt. In future, the freight would be flown direct to Leipzig/Halle by Boeing 777 freighters in the fleet of Lufthansa Cargo's AeroLogic joint venture or be trucked by road from Frankfurt to the Hermes bases.

"Our extreme flexibility and deployment of low-emission Boeing 777 freighters make a convincing case," said the Lufthansa Cargo Vice President Handling Germany. "Our network, customised to our customers' requirements, guarantees the fastest connections, high cost-efficiency and a host of synergy effects." Eckhardt Fechtner, General Manager Hermes Transport Logistics, added: "Shorter transit time for shipments and the environmental benefits resulting, among others, from fewer road service transports within Germany are major competitive gains for Hermes Transport Logistics. We are delighted to cooperate with Lufthansa Cargo at our most important distribution centre in Germany."

2011

September - DHL Global Forwarding acquired Lufthansa's 50% ownership in joint venture company LifeConEx. The end–to–end life sciences cold chain logistics provider was now a 100% DHL subsidiary.

"After running the innovative specialised logistics service together for six years, DHL Global Forwarding and Lufthansa Cargo agreed that a change in ownership would best prepare LifeConEx to further grow its market position" stated Roger Crook, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding and Freight, and Deutsche Post DHL Board Member sponsor for the Life Sciences & Healthcare Sector.

Established in 2005, the joint venture became the global leader in its niche market. DHL would utilise its global presence to leverage LifeConEx's capabilities and expand its cold chain services. While furthering its cooperation with Lufthansa, DHL would also maintain LifeConEx's neutrality in carriers, forwarders and packaging providers. This investment also supported Deutsche Post DHL's 2015 group and Life Sciences sector strategy.

2008

August - time:matters announced that it had gained Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany), a business unit of Siemens AG, as a customer for the time-critical spare parts logistics segment. The logistics provider, part of German airline group Lufthansa, said it had entered into a cooperation agreement with retroactive effect from April 1, 2008.

As part of that agreement, continued time:matters, it had taken on spare parts supply in Scandinavian countries as well as in Italy for Siemens Healthcare, one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. "Siemens Healthcare manufactures and distributes a wide range of live-saving and vital high-tech equipment for clinics and doctors' offices such as diagnostic systems and therapy equipment, but also complete IT solutions," explained time:matters.

The logistics company said that following Fujitsu Siemens Computers, time:matters had within a short time been able to gain another corporate customer from the Siemens Group for its logistics services. "For instance, time:matters maintains a special 'in-night network' for Siemens Healthcare which ensures that spare parts for sensitive medical equipment can be transported overnight from the spare parts warehouse to the place that they are needed - within 12 to 14 hours," it stated.

2012

April - A German court in Leipzig upheld a night-flight ban at Frankfurt Airport between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time.

The ruling came after a Hessen court ruled in October 2011 that 17 night-flights would be banned when FRA’s fourth runway opened in the same month following resident complaints of aircraft noise from nearby Russelsheim and Offenbach. Lufthansa Cargo operated 10 of those scheduled nighttime slots.

April - Lufthansa completed the sale of British Midland Ltd. (bmi) to International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of British Airways. The completion of the sale took place after close of business on April 19, 2012. The purchase price amounted to £172.5m (€207m).

As price adjustments were agreed as part of the transaction structure, the net purchase price would be determined at the end of the second quarter 2012, at which point the final amount would be transferred. It was expected that the net purchase price would be negative. However, the costs of the transaction for Lufthansa would amortise within one year. The gross purchase price was expected to be reduced by a number of items including agreed deductions for not selling bmi regional and bmibaby prior to the completion of the transaction.

bmi’s underfunded Pension Scheme was to be transferred to the UK Pension Protection Fund. The pension shortfall for the members of the bmi Pension Scheme would be offset to a large extent by a one-off contribution from Lufthansa of £84m to a supplementary pension scheme.

On November 4, 2011, Lufthansa and IAG agreed in principle to the sale of bmi to IAG, prior to a legally binding purchase agreement being signed by both parties on December 22, 2011. The validity of this contract was subject to regulatory approval by the European Commission, which was received on March 30, 2012. By carrying out the transaction, Lufthansa sold a consistently loss-making company.

March - Jade Cargo International, a Lufthansa Cargo/Shenzhen Airlines joint venture that temporarily suspended operations of its fleet of six Boeing 747-400Fs earlier in the month, signed a letter of intent with China’s UniTop Group to restructure the company.

The sale was expected to take two months to complete, and would completely divest Lufthansa Cargo of its 25% stake in the company.

March - Lufthansa would most likely not buy the remaining 55% of Brussels Airlines this year, chairman and CEO Christoph Franz revealed.

Franz said, “Our strategic commitment is clear, but we are not in a hurry to exercise our call option. We still have another two years to do so. At this point of time the priority is on our bottom line.”

In September 2008, Lufthansa bought 45% of Brussels Airlines parent company, SN Airholding for €65m via a capital increase. As part of the agreement, Lufthansa has an option of acquiring the remaining 55% from 2011. The option could be exercised during three weeks in April. 

Franz also confirmed that “if necessary we will offload more loss-making airlines in our portfolio. We started to offload loss-making carriers last year, with the sale of bmi to IAG, we closed Lufthansa Italia and withdrew from Jade Cargo.”

March - Lufthansa Cargo offered a new worldwide express service for urgent shipments. The new "Courier. Solutions" service provided the fastest transit and shortest delivery times in the Lufthansa Cargo. The company announced that the service had has no weight limits.

Lufthansa Cargo was offering this new product in cooperation with time:matters, a Lufthansa Cargo Group company that specialised in express logistics services. Customers could drop off their shipment at Frankfurt Airport up to 90 minutes before departure. At various other airports, the minimum drop-off time was one hour before departure. At Frankfurt, the transit time was 60 minutes, while the transfer time at Munich was 50 minutes.

The Vice President Product Management at Lufthansa Cargo said "with the shortest handling times, personal courier accompaniment during transit and round-the-clock, proactive shipment surveillance we can offer the speediest assistance when trade fair items or medicines, for example, are urgently needed on the other side of the world."

March - Lufthansa Cargo announced it was adding a route to Chongqing, China when its summer flight schedule began on March 25. The company was offering flights to 303 destinations in 99 countries.

Chongqing would be served with four flights weekly, operated by Lufthansa Cargo's MD-11 freighters. Other newcomers in the timetable - also thanks to the expansion of the network of Lufthansa passenger services - were Shenyang in northeastern China and Qingdao (Tsingtao) in Shandong province.

Flights to Detroit, US were to be increased to twice-weekly connections. Services to Detroit commenced initially in January with a once-weekly flight in the Lufthansa Cargo freighter network.

In South America, the company was adding twice-weekly MD-11 flights from Frankfurt to Montevideo, Uruguay.

Back in the timetable was Kolkata, India. Flights were operated to the Indian city last summer, but were discontinued in recent months. Once-weekly direct flights from Frankfurt were now available again in the summer flight schedules.

"We have selectively extended our route network and brought new and attractive growth markets into the timetable," noted a Lufthansa Board Member for Product and Sales. "We are expanding our presence in China, the world's biggest airfreight market, and now laying on freighter connections to a total of six Chinese destinations."

January - Lufthansa Cargo was considering replacing its fleet of 18 Boeing MD-11Fs and would decide by 2014 which aircraft to go with, according to chairman and CEO Karl-Ulrich Garnadt.

“We know we have to order more [Boeing] 777Fs and there is no other option,” Garnadt said. Lufthansa Cargo finalised an order for five 777 freighters valued at $1.35bn last spring.

January - Lufthansa Cargo revealed some of its expectations for the year ahead. CEO Karl-Ulrich Garnadt said that he expected no growth in 2012. "Currently we are 10% down compared to last year. The demand is much weaker,” he said.

The company's outlook was much more positive until last October, when it was announced that night flights would be banned at Frankfurt Airport. The ban removed 17 night-flights at the airport, 10 of which were Lufthansa Cargo's, costing the company €20m in profit in 2011. If the ban was contiually upheld in 2011, Lufthansa Cargo anticipated it would lose €40m in profit and a three digit figure in revenue.

Garnadt also remarked that the ban would alter the company's fleet development plans. He said Lufthansa Cargo had planned to lease two more freighters for the coming summer schedule but had “axed” those plans. “If this scenario continues to go in the wrong direction, then we will start to replace some MD-11Fs with the first 777s instead of expanding our fleet."

Garnadt said that if the court reverses the ban, the carrier will “switch some important night flights back to Frankfurt from July.” He said that 50% of Lufthansa Cargo's business was high-value express cargo.

January - Lufthansa Cargo announced it had started operating its first-ever flights between Frankfurt and Detroit, Michigan (US). The route connected Germany with the centre of the US automotive industry every Monday (after the beginning of the summer schedule: each Sunday) by an MD-11 freighter in the cargo carrier's fleet. The subsequent return flight would stop off in New York on the way back to Frankfurt.

"The new freighter connection supplements the daily flights operated by Lufthansa passenger aircraft, and offers our customers more capacity and greater flexibility," said the Lufthansa Cargo Vice President The Americas. "The automotive and pharmaceuticals industries, especially, are fuelling the growing demand for fast and reliable transports to and from Detroit."

Starting in March, Lufthansa Cargo planned to expand its Detroit operations to twice per week. This new connection was the seventh destination served by the cargo airline's freighter network in the US. Along with the services operated by the Lufthansa passenger business, direct flights were now available to 17 airports in the US.

January - Lufthansa Cargo boosted tonnage to record levels in 2011. The cargo airline carried approximately 1.9m tonnes of freight and mail in 2011, an increase of 5% compared to 2010.

The airline raised capacity over the twelve months by 8.6%. The company attributed the increase was to the integration, since the second half of 2010, of the capacities of aircraft in the fleet of Austrian Airlines and the expansion to eight Boeing 777 freighters in the fleet of the AeroLogic joint venture. In an increasingly difficult market environment, Lufthansa Cargo lifted sales of revenue freight-tonne km by 6.5%, so that capacity utilisation reached 69.5%; a slight decline from 70.9% in 2010.

"Especially in our German home market, we made full use of strong export demand to gain market shares. On the other hand, the economic climate in the important Asian airfreight market became increasingly bleak over the course of the year and led to over-capacities and increased competition for all airlines in the airfreight industry," observed the Lufthansa Cargo CEO and Chairman.

2011

December - Lufthansa Cargo begun operations at its new facility for temperature-sensitive freight in Frankfurt, Germany. The Lufthansa Cargo Cool Centre was built in the space of just six months.

The facility was equipped with four cool storage rooms for four different temperature ranges as well as a deep-freezer cell on an area of 4,500 sq m. From now on, all temperature-controlled shipments carried by the airline in Frankfurt would pass through the new facility.

The Board Member Product and Sales, said: "Our Cool/td product is assuming ever-increasing importance for Lufthansa Cargo thanks to growth rates of 15%. The Lufthansa Cargo Cool Center will enable us to ship temperature-controlled freight faster, more reliably and more efficiently at our Frankfurt hub, and further expand our position as a leading provider of cool transports."

Lufthansa Cargo earmarked substantial capital expenditure last year in the Cool/td product. Besides investing in the development of the Opticooler, the industry's most efficient cooling container, the cargo carrier commenced operations at its first international pharmaceutical hub at Hyderabad in India.

October - Lufthansa Cargo resumed MD-11 freighter to Singapore.

On Tuesdays, the MD-11 freighters would stop off in Mumbai before flying on to Singapore. On the return flight to Frankfurt, they would call at Dhaka in Bangladesh and again in India - this time in Delhi. On Fridays, the flight from Frankfurt stops off in Cairo, Egypt, and in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates. On Sunday, the way leads back over Dhaka and Delhi to Frankfurt.

October - Lufthansa Cargo underlined its fears regarding the consequences ensuing for the international logistics industry from the provisional night-flight ban placed upon Frankfurt Airport from October 30, 2011 by a regional court.

Following the ruling from the administrative court in Hesse, issued a few days before the introduction of Lufthansa's winter flight schedules, the company had put together an emergency timetable for the period after October 30. A number of flights had had to be relocated to daytime slots or to the early and late hours of the day.

Individual connections – to China, for example – had been cancelled entirely. Other flights bound for China would have to stop over at Cologne/Bonn Airport for several hours after an evening departure from Frankfurt so as to fly on, as originally planned, at night-time in the direction of the Far East. "We will be operating in future with unnecessary take-offs and landings, which will lead to more noise, higher fuel consumption and more costs running into millions," commented Lufthansa Cargo Chairman.

Furthermore from January, at least one MD-11 freighter was to be transferred from Frankfurt to Cologne/Bonn Airport. The freighter would operate the overnight flights for the German logistics industry to North America, which could no longer be guaranteed from Frankfurt because of the night-flight ban.

Lufthansa Cargo believed the provisional night-flight ban in Frankfurt was a drastic signal for the German logistics industry. He emphasised: "As export world champion, Germany is reliant on dependable connections to ship air freight to destinations around the globe. Frankfurt Airport plays in that respect a highly important role, since around 40% of German exports is transported by air."

The company said that it was hoping that the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig (the supreme court of appeal) would allow a minimum of necessary night flights in its final ruling.

October - The fourth runway at Frankfurt airport was opened, yet what Frankfurt’s owners and customers had hoped to be a useful improvement to capacity had ballooned into a major crisis for the airport’s cargo operations. At 2.8 km the new runway would be shorter than the existing facilities and was designed to serve smaller short-haul traffic. Part of the 'Expansion 2020 program', it was the first major part of a development that would also see a new terminal and new cargo handling facilities by 2016. The taxi-ways to the new runways would also include a bridge over the neighbouring motorway and another over a high-speed railway.

In order to get this programme past protesting local residents and environmental pressure groups, Fraport, the airport's owner, agreed to certain conditions including greater restrictions on night-flights. The residents and pressure groups who continued to dispute the airport expansion had now won a court order banning all night-flights from Frankfurt citing this agreement. The court judgement enacting a ban, which was issued on the 11th October was temporary until the case could be concluded in a higher court in 2012. In the meantime all flights between 23.00 and 05.00hrs would be prohibited from the 30thOctober.

The immediacy of this decision had dealt a blow to Lufthansa Cargo in particular. It had been forced to adopt emergency winter schedules including scrapping two flights a week to China and even flying freighters to neighbouring, less regulated German airports during the day in order for them to take off for their final destinations during the night. Such had been the disruption that Lufthansa's CEO had even suggested that the new runway should not be opened, circumventing the ban on night flights.

It was unclear what effect this ban would have on air cargo traffic in Europe. Frankfurt was Europe's largest air cargo hub, although belly freight operations would be affected less as there was no restriction on day-time flights. Presumably it would be the freighters and particularly those operating to China and Central Asia that would be affected most. This was all the more painful for Lufthansa as this was a route which they had made particular efforts on. There would be those who benefit from what was likely to be a major – if presumably temporary – restructuring of air freight logistics in Europe. Neighbouring airports in France, the Netherlands but also possibly the new Leipzig-Halle facility which was home to the AeroLogic Lufthansa - DHL joint venture, could see more business. Of even greater threat was the ability of Dubai and the smaller Gulf airports to jump in and grab some trans-shipment business from Frankfurt.

October - Lufthansa Cargo resumed MD-11 freighter to Singapore.

On Tuesdays, the MD-11 freighters would stop off in Mumbai before flying on to Singapore. On the return flight to Frankfurt, they would call at Dhaka in Bangladesh and again in India - this time in Delhi. On Fridays, the flight from Frankfurt stops off in Cairo, Egypt, and in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates. On Sunday, the way leads back over Dhaka and Delhi to Frankfurt.

September - Lufthansa's fleet modernisation was continued in with the ordering of
a further twelve aircraft (two Airbus A380s, one A330-300, four A320s, five Embraer 195s).

July - Lufthansa Cargo announced a tonnage increase of 14.8% in the first six months of 2011.

Capacity was up appreciably year on year. Overall, Lufthansa Cargo raised capacity by 19.7%. The increase was, among others, attributable to reactivation of freighters grounded temporarily in the crisis, expansion of the AeroLogic fleet to a total of eight aircraft and the carrier's marketing since July 1, 2010 of the freight capacities at Austrian Airlines.

Almost all the substantially increased capacity was sold in the market so that the load factor ended the first half at 69.1%. Growth was particularly pronounced in the Americas, where tonnage climbed by 19.5%.

"Lufthansa Cargo has harnessed the robust development of the global economy and sustained the growth momentum from the previous year," said the Lufthansa Cargo Chairman and CEO. "We have made our network even more attractive with the addition of new desti-nations and invested to good purpose in the ongoing development of our products. We posted gains especially in the special services we offer customers to meet their specific needs."

June - Lufthansa Cargo began operating twice weekly MD-11 freighter flights (Thursday and Saturday) to Houston, USA from its hub in Frankfurt, Germany.

June - Lufthansa Cargo began operating twice weekly MD-11 freighter flights (Thursday and Saturday) to Houston, USA from its hub in Frankfurt, Germany.

April - Lufthansa Cargo was expanding its route network in Asia and offering its customers a new service to Bangladesh; connecting Frankfurt with once-weekly flights to Dhaka. The flights to the capital of Bangladesh, on Wednesdays, would be operated by a Lufthansa Cargo MD-11 freighter.

"Bangladesh has assumed growing importance as a production base for the international fashion industry. Our direct flights to and from Dhaka will shorten the transport time for customers and link them into Lufthansa Cargo's global network," noted the Regional Director South Asia and Middle East of Lufthansa Cargo.

The flight would leave Frankfurt on Wednesdays at 0140 hours, arriving in Dhaka at 1910 hours after a stopover in Mumbai. The return flight from Dhaka would leave on Wednesdays at 2215 hours and was scheduled to land in Frankfurt at 0600 hours on Thursdays after a brief stop in Delhi.

March - Lufthansa's Supervisory Board approved an order for 35 aircraft.

2010

April - Lufthansa Cargo was the latest airline to report continuing growth in demand over the past few months. Its quarterly volume numbers, reported an increase of 19.3% compared to the same period in 2009, at 391,000 tonnes. Utilisation also climbed strongly with the cargo load factor increasing by 14.2 percentage points to 71.8%.

The cargo trend indicated a general increase in business at the German airline, although passenger volumes grew by only 1.2% year-on-year, reflecting both the lesser nature of the fall in passenger volumes during the recession as well as the steepness of the recovery in air cargo. 

BA World Cargo had also been reporting increasing volumes, with freight measured by cargo tonne kilometres rising by 6.4% year-on-year in March alone. British Airways suffered from a series on strikes during the period, although these did not seem to have affected adversely the quantities of cargo carried. Rather, it appeared that the lower available carrying capacity simply resulted in higher load factors. British Airways passenger business did suffer falls in volume as a result of its crews' industrial action so it was difficult to compare the behaviour of the two markets.

Performance was not dissimilar at the third of the big European carriers, Air France-KLM. Here cargo volumes climbed by 2.1% in March as compared to the same period in 2009. In the intervening period Air France-KLM has stripped out 11.8% of its capacity and this had increased the load factor to 72.5%. Growth was fairly uniform across the airline's geographical markets.  It was a little surprising that Air France-KLM - which had not suffered from industrial action - was expanding its volumes more slowly than its two competitors which had had labour problems.   

Although all of the airlines' cargo operations continued to be cautious in their forecasts, it was becoming fairly clear that the air freight market had recovered much of its activity and that the cargo operations of many of the larger carriers were back at economic levels of utilisation.

February - Lufthansa Cargo was under threat from a four day strike by its own pilots and that of its parent company, Lufthansa. The German carrier, which was one of the world's largest air freight carriers, had weathered the recession better than many of its rivals, however the threatened industrial action could have been a significant blow to its business. It was also part of a wave of labour unrest hitting many of the established airlines as they attempted to restructure their cost base in the face of a severe recession in the sector.

The pilots union, Vereinigung Cockpit, was threatening to bring all of its 4,500 members out on strike (Monday, 22 February), until Thursday of that week over a dispute concerning the use of non-German subsidiaries. These subsidiaries offered Lufthansa the option of cheaper wage costs and the union fears Lufthansa would increasingly use them instead of services operated by German staff. The pilots' union was demanding that all Lufthansa pilots were given the same pay and conditions, something which the company was not very willing to do. Instead it had offered its pilots in the German part of Lufthansa job security until 2012.

The airline had said that the strike could cost it as much as €100m. It was also considering legal action to stop the strike going ahead. Lufthansa says that although subsidiaries such as Lufthansa Cargo would be affected, operations by its non-German companies would not, enabling a proportion of flights to operate as normal. 

The impact of such as strike on the air freight market worldwide would be significant. Although certainly not occupying a dominant position, Lufthansa provided substantial capacity in many airfreight routes such as Europe to China. The effect of a sudden withdrawal of this capacity was likely to push-up rates aggressively. The beneficiaries of this would be other air freight carriers, although freight forwarders may be left scrambling for space.

2009

September - Lufthansa was threatening to close its fleet of freighter aircraft if restrictions on night flights were imposed on its hub at Frankfurt. The CEO of Lufthansa Cargo was quoted commenting to Reuter's journalists just before the weekend that it might no longer pay to have its own cargo fleet. He was responding to a German court judgement on the service limitations around the expansion of Frankfurt airport. In order to calm opposition to the growth of the airport, politicians in the State of Hesse agreed to limit the number of night flights to just 17. Lufthansa challenged this condition, but the court rejected the airline's objection stating that the local politicians had the right to agree to such limitations.

The problem for Lufthansa cargo specifically was that it would receive few if any of the allotted 17 slots, with passenger services invariably being higher up the queue. This would severely curtail the viability of Lufthansa's freight hub at Frankfurt and therefore Lufthansa's freighter fleet.

Lufthansa had been unusual amongst major airlines in its commitment to cargo services but also in the degree of reliance it placed in cargo aircraft. Almost half of its capacity was in its fleet of 19 freighters with the rest in belly-freight. Therefore any move away from freighters would be a significant change in corporate strategy as well as having a sizeable impact on the air freight market. This suggested that its comments may in part be a threat designed to sway the politicians of Hesse as a much as a real assessment of Lufthansa's future fleet options.  

It was unclear what implications any reduction in the freighter fleet would have on Lufthansa's other freight operations, such as AeroLogic, its joint venture with DHL which also operated its own aircraft but whose hub was based in Leipzig, in eastern Germany.

August - Lufthansa Cargo added a range of destinations in the USA and southern Europe to its network. The network extension included Athens, Greece and the airline had commenced a once-weekly flight on Thursdays ex Frankfurt using an MD-11F. From there, it will fly via Mumbai to Hong Kong.

In addition, the routing Frankfurt - Istanbul - Frankfurt would be served five times a week after a short stoppage and on Saturdays, an additional stopover in Athens would be implemented. The A300F freighter used offered a capacity of 40 tonnes. As previously it would continue serving Athens with belly capacities on Lufthansa passenger aircraft and ad-hoc road services from Frankfurt and Munich Airports.

From August, Lufthansa would launch twice-weekly flights out of Frankfurt to Seattle on the US West Coast on Thursdays and Saturdays. They would be routed through Seattle en-route to Los Angeles.

Additionally Lufthansa Cargo was expanding its services to South America with a daily connection to Viracopos/Brazil. New flights on Mondays would also be available to Bogota/Colombia, raising the frequencies to the southern coast of South America to thrice-weekly. An additional second stopover weekly in Curitiba would come into the timetable from August.

Finally Lufthansa Cargo would be offering a once a week connection to the Mexican city of Guadalajara (GDL). The flight would operate from Frankfurt via Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Guadalajara and again via Dallas back to Frankfurt.

"The newcomers to the network in Europe, the USA, South and Middle America will strengthen the position of Lufthansa Cargo in those markets and offer our customers attractive connections to strong growth regions," commented the Senior Vice President Network and Product Management at Lufthansa Cargo AG. "Moreover, they show how fast and flexibly we are harnessing opportunities in a difficult market environment so as to emerge from the crisis as a reliable and future-proof partner for our customers."

January - Lufthansa Cargo confirmed previously-indicated plans to put many of its staff on short-time working.

In a statement the German air cargo carrier said about 2,600 ground employees in Germany would be put on short-time working from March 1. It reported that a company agreement to that effect had been signed in Frankfurt on February 12 by the Lufthansa Cargo Executive Board and the Works Council. "The envisaged measures will enable the company to adapt its staffing capacities flexibly to accommodate declining demand in the air cargo business," it stated.

Lufthansa Cargo said that under the terms of the agreement, which had been concluded for an initial period of 12 months until February 28, 2010, working hours for all ground staff (including non-pay-scale employees) would be reduced by 20%. Staff on short-time working would be guaranteed 90% of their last net pay.

The Lufthansa Cargo Executive Board Member Finance and Human Resources, commented: "As soon as the air cargo market picks up again, we can relax the measures. If, however, the demand situation becomes more acute, we can adjust the short-term working measures upwards."

Lufthansa Cargo said corresponding negotiations were currently being conducted with representatives of the carrier's cockpit staff. In addition, senior executives and members of the Executive Board would take a voluntary pay cut with the introduction of short-term working.

January - Lufthansa Cargo was set to introduce short-time working in response to the global slump in that traffic and resulting cutbacks in its own freighter service operations.

In a statement issued the German air cargo carrier said its Executive Board had reached an agreement on that move with the company's Works Council. The details of a corresponding company accord were to be hammered out by a negotiating commission "as soon as possible".

The Lufthansa Cargo Chairman, stated: "Short-time would affect around 2,600 employees of the Lufthansa cargo carrier in Germany. The envisaged measures will allow the company to adapt staffing capacities flexibly to accommodate declining demand.

"Demand for air freight capacities has fallen sharply, worldwide. The production halt in diverse industries has hit the entire international logistics business - and especially the air cargo industry.

"After scaling back our freighter capacities, flexible adjustment of staffing capacities has become inevitable in the company's present situation. We are nevertheless confident that we will be able to safeguard all jobs at Lufthansa Cargo."

2008

December - Lufthansa Cargo was cutting its global freighter capacity by about 10%. In a separate development, the German organisation was taking over the marketing of most of the ex-Asia freighter flights operated by Chinese joint venture carrier Jade Cargo International*.

In a statement Lufthansa Cargo said it was "flexibly adapting capacity to declining demand". "Freighter capacities are to be reduced by around 10% on January 1, 2009."

Simultaneously, continued Lufthansa Cargo, the carrier would reduce its cooperation with World Airways, which up to now had operated two MD-11Fs and a B747-400F on its behalf. "Those routes will in future be served by B747-400ERF aircraft in the fleet of the German-Chinese air freight carrier Jade Cargo International."

Lufthansa Cargo Chairman said the German operator was adapting capacity "in the face of increasingly difficult economic conditions and a distinct falloff in demand". "We will continue operating all our 19 MD-11 freighters, while utilising the capacity adjustments to further improve our quality, reliability and punctuality."

Against the background of current market conditions, stated Lufthansa Cargo, it and Jade Cargo International would step up their cooperation at the beginning of 2009. "The crane-emblemed carrier (Lufthansa Cargo) is taking over the marketing of the bulk of flights operated ex-Asia by its subsidiary (Jade) from January 1, 2009. It has been responsible for marketing Jade Cargo capacities ex Europe since March 2008."

Lufthansa Cargo pointed out that from mid-2009, it would also have access to capacity on the new B777-200LRF freighters in the fleet of new DHL Express/Lufthansa Cargo joint venture carrier AeroLogic. That venture would begin operations with a delay of several months due to delayed aircraft deliveries from Boeing.

*Lufthansa Cargo has a 25% stake in Jade Cargo International and Chinese carrier Shenzhen Airlines 51%. The other 24% is owned by German financial institution DEG. 

December - Lufthansa Cargo announced the planned launch of a new multimodal AirShip service from Europe to a number of destinations in Australia on January 1.

The German carrier said shipments flown daily from Europe to Shenzhen (China) and Hong Kong could in future be shipped on from there by sea to the Australian metropolises of Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

"Fast and seamless transition of cargo shipments from aircraft to ship is guaranteed by new AirShipCentres in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Transport from start-to-finish will be operated under a single air waybill number," stated Lufthansa Cargo.

Lufthansa Cargo Vice President Europe/Africa explained that AirShip transport was an addition to the carrier's td.Pro service for general cargo. "With it, we are offering customers a reliable, high-quality transport solution to Australia, which ideally combines the time and cost advantages of air and sea freight," he claimed.

Lufthansa Cargo Vice President Asia-Pacific, added: "Simultaneously, we are accommodating growing demand on the Australian continent and strengthening the cargo hub in Shenzhen of our Jade Cargo International subsidiary."

Lufthansa Cargo said shipments currently took between six and eight weeks on the sea route from Europe to Asia. "The AirShip service reduces transit time for Lufthansa Cargo customers substantially to between 14 and 18 days. With the multimodal transport solution, they profit additionally from lower costs for tied-up capital and insurance."

October - Cargo 2000 announced an increased presence in China following the decision of Tianjin AirCargo Terminal (TAT) to join its air cargo quality improvement programme. Cargo 2000 was an IATA-backed (International Air Transport Association) initiative established to develop and implement a new quality management system for the worldwide air cargo industry.

According to Cargo 2000, TAT said membership of that programme would "further support its close customer relationships through enhanced monitoring and reporting of each customer's specific shipments and the ability to increase the reliability of freight movements".

TAT also said: "With proper measurement, we are able to identify service improvement opportunities, streamline our processes and make our operation more efficient. In the longer term, we expect Cargo 2000 to help us bring in more business when its brand name is more recognised by the shipping public for its ability to produce cost reduction opportunities and more efficient operations due to the implementation of standardised business processes."

TAT's shareholders were Hwa-Hsia International Holding, German carrier Lufthansa Cargo and Tianjin Airport International Logistics Joint Stock Co. It operated from a brand new 22,000 sq m cargo centre in the Free Zone at Tianjin Binhai International Airport.

August - Lufthansa Cargo announced two new but unrelated developments - the imminent integration of the business activities of current 100% subsidiary cargo counts GmbH and an expansion of its security measures in the US.

Commenting on the first move, Lufthansa Cargo stated that at the beginning of 2009, it would take over responsibility for the business activities of cargo counts GmbH, including its staff and customers. Within the context of a merger with Lufthansa Cargo, continued the carrier, the supplier of total cargo management would be dissolved at the end of the year.

The chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa Cargo, commented: "Through the integration of cargo counts we are provided with operational synergy effects and will further increase the economic efficiency of Lufthansa Cargo Group." 

Lufthansa Cargo originally hived off cargo counts as an independent company in September 2003. Its customers mainly include tourist airlines like Condor or Sun Express. In addition, cargo counts markets the capacities of Italian airline AirOne and of Croatia Airlines. Customers of Lufthansa Cargo also have access to those networks.

Regarding security measures in the US, Lufthansa Cargo said it would "shortly" install state-of-the-art explosive trace detection systems at all the destinations it served in that market −  New York; Newark, NJ; Boston; Philadelphia; Washington, DC; Detroit;  Charlotte; Orlando; Miami; Houston; Chicago; Dallas/Ft. Worth; Atlanta; Denver; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; Seattle and Los Angeles.  

Lufthansa Cargo pointed out that in 2007, the US Congress had mandated that within three years, all cargo transported on passenger aircraft must be 100% screened. The regulation was to be implemented in phases: 50% of all shipments must be checked by February 2009 and all shipments by August 2010.

Lufthansa Cargo said it would be utilising the new equipment ahead of that schedule, from the third quarter of 2008. Additionally, the carrier has transformed its bases in Chicago and Los Angeles into 'security hubs'. 

August - German carrier Lufthansa Cargo issued a statement claiming that operations at its main hub, Frankfurt, were "running smoothly without major delays" despite the indefinite strike action by some freight handling staff, Lufthansa passenger ground service personnel and aircraft cabin crew, which began earlier this week.

Outside Frankfurt, Lufthansa Cargo admitted there were "major problems" at Hamburg airport "because of the relatively high participation in the walkout there" but claimed the strike had so far had only a "little impact" on its other stations in Germany. The cargo organisation also stated that its MD11 freighter operations out of both Frankfurt and Leipzig had so far operated normally, with no cancellations or delays, and it expected that pattern to continue both last night and today.

However, during the course of yesterday there were signs that the strike, organised by the ver.di trade union in support of a pay claim, was having an increasing impact on Lufthansa's passenger services, with a number of German domestic, intra-European and longhaul flights being cancelled. Commenting on the impact of that on bellyhold cargo operations, Lufthansa Cargo stated yesterday that it had to date re-booked cargo on earlier or later flight connections or switched shipments to road feeder services in its German and European network.

Lufthansa Cargo also stated that in light of the strike action, Lufthansa's passenger division had adapted its flight schedules for the next five days and issued a special timetable for German domestic and European connections. "This ensures that 90% of all Lufthansa flights in the German and European network will take place. A special timetable for longhaul services is in the offing."

Regarding specific cargo activities at Frankfurt, Lufthansa Cargo said embargos on the handling of selected products there, including live animals and valuables, remained imposed or had been prolonged. For example, an embargo on the transit/export movement of tropical fish and general movement of day-old chicks had been extended to August 5. The carrier added that that there was no embargo on Cool/td and classic perishables cargo which were being accepted worldwide as usual

Late yesterday, there were news agency reports that the ver.di union had resumed talks with Lufthansa in a bid to resolve the dispute.

June - Lufthansa Cargo was appointed leading carrier for the international air cargo industry's 'e-freight' project in Germany - Europe's largest air cargo market - during the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Lufthansa Cargo chairman commented: "Lufthansa Cargo will press ahead firmly with the e-freight project and expressly further paperless cargo transport. With the help of this initiative, we intend to accelerate processes for the benefit of our customers, create cost-efficient structures and generally advance the cause of the airfreight industry." 

Lufthansa Cargo stated that in cooperation with customers, it would now make preparations for the first paperless shipment and put in place the required processes. The aim, said the German carrier, was to facilitate the first paperless transport from Germany at the end of this year. 

The 'e-freight' project was initiated as part of IATA's 'Simplifying the Business' initiative in 2004. In November 2007, it was trialled worldwide in a pilot phase in six markets. On completion of the pilot phase, IATA named further countries for that project, including Germany.

According to IATA, an average 38 documents are produced for each single air freight shipment worldwide - enough to fill 39 B747 freighters annually. Theoretically, suggested IATA, an electronic solution could save the international air freight industry in the region of US$1.2bn.

May - German air freight specialist cargo counts (subsidiary of German carrier Lufthansa Cargo AG)   appointed SP Aviation Services Inc as its new general sales agent (GSA) for Turkey.

The latter, which was headquartered in Istanbul and also opened a new office in Izmir, would be solely responsible for marketing the air freight capacity of cargo counts' partner airlines. The main carrier, besides Condor, Croatia Airlines and euroAtlantik, is the Turkish holiday airline SunExpress.

According to cargo counts, SP Aviation Services fought off competition from several internationally-established companies to win the tender. "With our bases in Istanbul, Antalya and Izmir we can guarantee cargo counts a high degree of customer proximity in Turkey, which is a growth market," said Nursel Gueven, director sales and marketing at SP Aviation. "Our local proximity to SunExpress will also simplify sales and handling enormously and enable us to respond quickly and flexibly to all our customers' wishes."

Cargo counts GmbH, which is based in Hattersheim, close to Frankfurt Airport since its founding in 2003 has provided total cargo management for various airlines.

March - Lufthansa Cargo and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) signed up to even closer co-operation with the launch last week of the latter's 'e-freight' project in Germany.

At a meeting in Frankfurt, the two initiated a further trial phase of the IATA worldwide initiative aimed at eliminating the need to transport paper documents for air cargo shipments. Lufthansa Cargo said it would take over the project management in Germany and oversee the effective implementation of the necessary processes by all the stakeholders in the logistics supply chain.

The 'e-freight' project is said to signify a major step towards process simplification in the air cargo industry. "The IATA initiative will allow us to handle all the paperwork in the entire supply chain electronically and make it more environment-friendly," observed Markus Witte, the designated project manager at Lufthansa Cargo. "E-freight will furnish cargo carriers with better data quality. It will improve supply chain efficiency and customer service at lower cost."

The e-freight project was initiated as part of the IATA 'Simplifying the Business' initiative in 2004 and trialled in a pilot phase in five markets during 2007. The findings obtained in the trial phase are now to be translated into practice in other major markets, including Germany, pending completion of the project by 2010.

In a separate development, Lufthansa Cargo also announced that with the planned introduction of the carrier's 2008 summer timetable on March 30, its flight programme, particularly to Asia, would be substantially expanded. New services would include two direct freighter flights per week to Beijing. "For the first time, the cargo carrier's MD-11F service from Frankfurt to Shanghai and Seoul will be operated non-stop," it stated.

2011

December - Lufthansa Cargo begun operations at its new facility for temperature-sensitive freight in Frankfurt, Germany. The Lufthansa Cargo Cool Centre was built in the space of just six months.

The facility was equipped with four cool storage rooms for four different temperature ranges as well as a deep-freezer cell on an area of 4,500 sq m. From now on, all temperature-controlled shipments carried by the airline in Frankfurt would pass through the new facility.

The Board Member Product and Sales, said: "Our Cool/td product is assuming ever-increasing importance for Lufthansa Cargo thanks to growth rates of 15%. The Lufthansa Cargo Cool Center will enable us to ship temperature-controlled freight faster, more reliably and more efficiently at our Frankfurt hub, and further expand our position as a leading provider of cool transports."

Lufthansa Cargo earmarked substantial capital expenditure last year in the Cool/td product. Besides investing in the development of the Opticooler, the industry's most efficient cooling container, the cargo carrier commenced operations at its first international pharmaceutical hub at Hyderabad in India.

September - DHL Global Forwarding acquired Lufthansa's 50% ownership in joint venture company LifeConEx. The end–to–end life sciences cold chain logistics provider was now a 100% DHL subsidiary.

"After running the innovative specialised logistics service together for six years, DHL Global Forwarding and Lufthansa Cargo agreed that a change in ownership would best prepare LifeConEx to further grow its market position" stated Roger Crook, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding and Freight, and Deutsche Post DHL Board Member sponsor for the Life Sciences & Healthcare Sector.

Established in 2005, the joint venture became the global leader in its niche market. DHL would utilise its global presence to leverage LifeConEx's capabilities and expand its cold chain services. While furthering its cooperation with Lufthansa, DHL would also maintain LifeConEx's neutrality in carriers, forwarders and packaging providers. This investment also supported Deutsche Post DHL's 2015 group and Life Sciences sector strategy.

David Bang, CEO of LifeConEx would continue to lead the company and was committed to overseeing the ownership transition for continued development and success.

May - Lufthansa Cargo announced that its pharmaceutical hub for temperature-sensitive airfreight had begun operations at Hyderabad Airport in India.

"With the certification of the key stations for cold-chain transport in our network we are strengthening our commitment to transporting temperature-sensitive shipments," said the Senior Manager Global Key Accounts Temperature Control at Lufthansa Cargo. "In parallel to the certification process, we are further expanding our own fleet of cold-chain containers in Hyderabad."

In December last year, Lufthansa Cargo and the operator of Hyderabad Airport, the GMR Group, announced plans to jointly develop the airport into the key hub in South Asia for the transport of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals.

2010

August - Lufthansa Cargo is offering customers more options for the transport of temperature-sensitive airfreight, adding to its portfolio, the latest generation of cooling containers - opticooler.

2010

March - Lufthansa Cargo and Jettainer concluded trials of lightweight containers that will allow lower fuel burn and thus lower CO2 emissions.

Jettainer, the outsourced ULD (Unit Load Device) management company partly owned by Lufthansa Cargo, provided 1,000 containers made of fiberglass, Kevlar fiber or Dyneema for a total of approximately 120,000 trial runs on Lufthansa flights over six months. The containers are 20% lighter than aluminum containers.

2010

2008

August - time:matters announced that it had gained Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany), a business unit of Siemens AG, as a customer for the time-critical spare parts logistics segment. The logistics provider said it had entered into a cooperation agreement with retroactive effect from April 1, 2008.

As part of that agreement, time:matters had taken on spare parts supply in Scandinavian countries as well as in Italy for Siemens Healthcare, one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. "Siemens Healthcare manufactures and distributes a wide range of life-saving and vital high-tech equipment for clinics and doctors' offices - such as diagnostic systems and therapy equipment, but also complete IT solutions," explained time:matters.

The logistics company said that following Fujitsu Siemens Computers, time:matters had within a short time been able to gain another corporate customer from the Siemens Group for its logistics services. "For instance, time:matters maintains a special 'in-night network' for Siemens Healthcare which ensures that spare parts for sensitive medical equipment can be transported overnight from the spare parts warehouse to the place that they are needed - within 12 to 14 hours," it stated.