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Lufthansa Cargo AG is a German cargo airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of
Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...
. It operates worldwide air freight and logistics services and is headquartered at
Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
, 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 (earlier still, cargo operations were executed in-house, under the ''Lufthansa Cargo'' name), when – in an effort to restructure the company – the cargo division was re-integrated into its parent, 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). Lufthansa Cargo was created as a limited stock company on 30 November 2004, along with ''Lufthansa Cargo Charter''. Lufthansa Cargo uses ''LH'' (the same IATA code as Lufthansa), as well as ''GEC'' (the former ICAO code of German Cargo) as airline codes.


Operations and subsidiaries

As of 2011, all Lufthansa Cargo aircraft are based at
Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
, the seventh busiest freight hub in the world, where the airline enjoys a strong co-operation with
Fraport Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide,Leipzig/Halle Airport Leipzig/Halle Airport (German: ''Flughafen Leipzig/Halle'') is an international airport located in Schkeuditz, Saxony, Germany and serves both Leipzig, Saxony, and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. It is Germany's 14th largest airport by passengers and ...
, 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 A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
between Lufthansa and DHL, which henceforth caters for the DHL flights, allowing Lufthansa Cargo to concentrate on other services. In 1996,
Hinduja Cargo Services Hinduja Cargo Services was a cargo airline based in New Delhi, India. It was a joint venture between the Hinduja Group and German airline Lufthansa Cargo. The company operated a fleet of Boeing 727 freighters, flying from airports in the Indian ...
was founded as a joint venture between
Hinduja Group Hinduja Group is an Indian transnational conglomerate. The group is present in eleven sectors including automotive, oil and specialty chemicals, banking and finance, IT and ITeS, cyber security, healthcare, trading, infrastructure project ...
and Lufthansa Cargo. The company operated a fleet of Boeing 727 freighters, flying from airports in the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...
to feed Lufthansa Cargo's hub at
Sharjah airport Sharjah International Airport ( ar, مطار الشارقة, Maṭār aš-Šāriqa) () is an international airport located east-southeast of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It is spread over an area of . It has one runway, and is the only airpor ...
. 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 An airline alliance is an aviation industry arrangement between two or more airlines agreeing to cooperate on a substantial level. Alliances may provide marketing branding to facilitate travelers making inter-airline codeshare connections within c ...
, but left in 2007 as it did not see any benefits for the future. In 2002 the special logistics company time:matters was founded, which was sold in the meantime, but is now again a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo. Lufthansa Cargo used to operate a hub for intra-Asian flights at
Astana International Airport Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport ( kk, Халықаралық Нұрсұлтан Назарбаев әуежайы, Halyqaralyq Nūrsūltan Nazarbaev Äuejaiy, ; russian: Международный аэропорт Нурсултан ...
in
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, but was forced to relocate it to Yemelyanovo Airport in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
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 Jade Cargo International was a cargo airline with its headquarters on the sixth floor of the Shenzhen Airlines Flight Operations Building at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport, Bao'an District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It operated regular ca ...
was founded as a joint venture between
Shenzhen Airlines Shenzhen Airlines () is an airline headquartered in Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, Guangdong. It has been a member of Star Alliance since 2012, and is currently one of two Chinese airlines that is part o ...
, 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 Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) is an international airport that serves Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. It is located in Shamshabad, about south of Hyderabad and it was opened on 23 March 2008 to replace B ...
in
Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...
, India, to transport temperature-sensitive goods, especially pharmaceuticals, between South East Asia and Europe (and onwards to the United States). In 2019, heyworld GmbH was founded as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo with a focus on eCommerce logistics. The company and another Lufthansa subsidiary was planned to benefit from the Airbus A321F operations. In September 2020, Lufthansa Cargo confirmed to retire their remaining
McDonnell Douglas MD-11F The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American tri-jet wide-body airliner manufactured by American McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and later by Boeing. Following DC-10 development studies, the MD-11 program was launched on December 30, 1986. Assembly of t ...
during 2021 despite the grown freight demand in the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.aerotelegraph.com
(German) 2 September 2021
The last MD-11F flight took place on 17 October 2021.flugrevue.de
(German) 17 October 2021


Destinations

, Lufthansa Cargo serves 57 cities worldwide with its cargo aircraft.


Fleet


Current fleet

, the Lufthansa Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft: With the delivery of the first
Boeing 777F The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap betw ...
, 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 747-200 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
s. 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 (which Lufthansa received as freighter versions in 2001 after MD-11 production ended) version and its successor, the
Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap betw ...
freighter. In March 2011, the order of five
Boeing 777F The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap betw ...
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. Lufthansa Cargo had planned to retire its remaining MD-11s by December 2020, but the retirement was delayed due to the increased cargo demand caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...


Former fleet

Over the years, the following aircraft types were operated:


Accidents and incidents

*On 26 July 1979, a Boeing 707 freighter (registration D-ABUY) operating Flight 527 crashed into a hilly slope shortly after take-off, killing all 3 crew-members onboard. The cause of the accident was mainly attributed towards the lack of Brazilian Air Traffic control to pay necessary attention to aircraft in their airspace and warn aircraft of the impending collision with terrain. * On 18 October 1983, a Boeing 747-200 freighter registered D-ABYU operating as Flight 683 overshot the runway during an aborted takeoff at Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong having experienced a failure of the no. 2 engine. The aircraft was substantially damaged, but was repaired and returned to service. *On 7 July 1999, a Boeing 727-243 freighter leased from
Hinduja Cargo Services Hinduja Cargo Services was a cargo airline based in New Delhi, India. It was a joint venture between the Hinduja Group and German airline Lufthansa Cargo. The company operated a fleet of Boeing 727 freighters, flying from airports in the Indian ...
operating as Lufthansa Cargo Flight 8533 from Nepal to India, crashed into a mountain after takeoff from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all five people on board. *On 7 November 2004 at 16:35 local time, a
Boeing 747-200 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
freighter, owned and operated by
Air Atlanta Icelandic Air Atlanta Icelandic is a charter and ACMI airline based in Kópavogur, Iceland. It specialises in leasing aircraft on an ACMI (Aircraft, Crews, Maintenance, Insurance) and wet lease basis to airlines worldwide needing extra passenger and ...
, 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 Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
. 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 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 Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the ...
,
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...
and was damaged beyond repair in the ensuing fire. The
Pilot in command The pilot in command (PIC) of an aircraft is the person aboard the aircraft who is ultimately responsible for its operation and safety during flight. This would be the captain in a typical two- or three- pilot aircrew, or "pilot" if there is o ...
and the First Officer — the only two persons on board — were able to leave the aircraft by themselves. *On 24 November 2013, Lufthansa Cargo Flight 8258, an MD-11 registered D-ALCE, bounced during landing at Viracopos International Airport and initiated a go around. The aircraft landed with substantial damage. It was later repaired and returned to service.


References


External links


Official website
{{Authority control Airlines of Germany Cargo airlines of Germany Airlines established in 1994 Lufthansa Group Germany–Russia relations 1994 establishments in Germany