Global Load Control is a subsidiary company of the Lufthansa Group, and was established in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 2004. The company provides remote weight and balance and load control services to its parent company Lufthansa as well as other airlines. Global Load Control operates from its three centers in Cape Town,

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

and

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. These three centers handle more than 140 Lufthansa stations and process some 1800 flights a day. Global Load Control's operations center in Cape Town became Lufthansa's first load control center outside of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Before this, Lufthansa maintained two centralized load control centers in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

History

*2004: Global Load Control founded by

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

*2007: Second operations center established in

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

*2009: Third operations center established in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Controversy

Lufthansa's decision to open a centralized load control center outside of

was unpopular with Lufthansa load controllers based in

and

as they feared the loss of their jobs. Union involvement for a time prevented long haul flights departing from Germany to be processed by the new load control center in Cape Town. Lufthansa's move to

outsource Outsourcing is a business practice in which company, companies use external providers to carry out business processes that would otherwise be handled internally. Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to ...

its load controlling needs to its centers in Cape Town, Istanbul and Brno where motivated by more affordable operations costs. The cost of processing flights outside of

are around 30 percent cheaper. Another motivating factor that influenced Lufthansa to outsource its load controlling to Cape Town, Brno and Istanbul was due to the high number of German expatriates and local inhabitants with a good knowledge of German living in these cities. In 2008 concerns were raised as to the quality of work the Global Load Control center in Cape Town was able to deliver, with one client airline calling for Lufthansa's load control operations for

Frankfurt airport Frankfurt Airport ( ) , is Germany's busiest international airport by passenger numbers, located in Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city. Its official name according to the German Aeronautical Information Publication is Frankfurt Main Airpor ...

to be moved back to Frankfurt. In response to this criticism, Lufthansa has stated that a move towards remote centralized load controlling and from manual loadsheets to electronic loadsheets was in the airlines best interest, and that steps have been taken to address the concerns about quality. Since then, Global Load Control has received its Dekra ISO 9001:2008 certification, and states on its corporate website that it is committed to ...''producing a quality service by focusing on the principles of safety, punctuality and economy''..., and that its quality management systems are continually reviewed and improved.

References

External links

* {{Lufthansa Lufthansa Group Business services companies established in 2004 Companies based in Cape Town South African companies established in 2004