Lufthansa Cargo
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. Besides operating dedicated cargo planes, the company also has access to cargo capacities of 350 passenger aircraft of the Lufthansa Group.
History
Lufthansa operated a cargo subsidiary, called German Cargo, between 1977 and 1993, when – in an effort to restructure the company – the cargo division was re-integrated into its parent, and split up into two parts.Lufthansa Cargo was created as a limited stock company on 30 November 2004, along with Lufthansa Cargo Charter. Lufthansa Cargo uses LH, as well as GEC as airline codes. 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 was the leading cargo airline in terms of international freight tonne-kilometres carried, but has since been surpassed by Cathay Pacific and Korean Air Cargo.
Operations and subsidiaries
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, 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.
In 1996, Hinduja Cargo Services was founded as a joint venture between Hinduja Group and Lufthansa Cargo. The company operated a fleet of Boeing 727 freighters, flying from airports in the Indian subcontinent to feed Lufthansa Cargo's hub at Sharjah airport. The airline suspended operations in 2000 in favour of direct services from Frankfurt using Lufthansa Cargo aircraft.
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 blackmail by the Russian authorities.
In 2008, Jade Cargo International was founded as a joint venture between Shenzhen Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo, and the German Investment Corporation, a German governmental entity. Jade ended operations in 2011.
In May 2011, Lufthansa Cargo opened another hub at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, to transport temperature-sensitive goods, especially pharmaceuticals, between South East Asia and Europe.
Destinations
As of October 2013, Lufthansa Cargo serves 57 cities worldwide with its cargo aircraft.Fleet
Current fleet
As of April 2020 the Lufthansa Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft:| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Notes |
| Boeing 777F | 7 | 2 | Deliveries from 2020. To replace McDonnell Douglas MD-11. |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11F | 6 | ||
| Total | 13 | 2 |
With the delivery of the first Boeing 777F, Lufthansa Cargo started to name their aircraft in a scheme referring to typical greetings of the countries they serve. The first 777F was named Good day, USA, while an MD-11F was named Buenos días México for example.
Fleet development
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 favour of a fleet entirely consisting of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 version and its successor, the Boeing 777 freighter. In March 2011, the order of five Boeing 777F was announced, the same aircraft type which had earlier been chosen for AeroLogic. Almost the entire Lufthansa Cargo fleet today is composed of purpose-built freighter aircraft.Over the years, the following aircraft types were operated:
| Aircraft | Introduced | Retired |
| Boeing 737-300F | 1994 | 1997 |
| Boeing 747-200F | 1994 | 2005 |
| Boeing 777F | 2013 | — |
| Douglas DC-8-73F | 1994 | 1997 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11F | 1998 | — |
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. The four people on board were not injured.
- 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.