 | |||||||
 ABoeing 777F of Lufthansa Cargo | |||||||
| |||||||
| Founded | 1977; 48 years ago (1977) (asGerman Cargo) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commenced operations | 1993; 32 years ago (1993) (asLufthansa Cargo) | ||||||
| Hubs | Frankfurt Airport | ||||||
| Subsidiaries | AeroLogic (50%) | ||||||
| Fleet size | 16 | ||||||
| Destinations | 57 | ||||||
| Parent company | Lufthansa Group | ||||||
| Headquarters | Frankfurt,Hesse, Germany | ||||||
| Key people | Ashwin Bhat (CEO) | ||||||
| Website | www | ||||||
Lufthansa CargoAG is a Germancargo airline and a wholly owned subsidiary ofLufthansa. It operates worldwide air freight and logistics services and is headquartered atFrankfurt Airport, Lufthansa's mainhub.[1][2] Besides operating dedicated cargo planes, the company also has access to cargo capacities of 350 passenger aircraft of the Lufthansa Group.
_(2).jpg)
.jpg)
Recognizing the growing importance of the cargo business, Lufthansa established its cargo subsidiary in 1977 calledGerman Cargo Services GmbH.[3] Previously, cargo operations were executed in-house, under theLufthansa 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).[citation needed]
In 1996,Hinduja Cargo Services was founded as a joint venture betweenHinduja Group and Lufthansa Cargo. The company operated a fleet ofBoeing 727 freighters, flying from airports in theIndian subcontinent to feed Lufthansa Cargo's hub atSharjah International Airport.[4] The airline suspended operations in 2000 in favour of direct services from Frankfurt using Lufthansa Cargo aircraft.[5]
In 2000, Lufthansa Cargo was a founding member of theWOW Alliance, a global cargoairline alliance, but left in 2007 as it did not see any benefits for the future.
In 2002 the special logistics companytime:matters was founded, which was sold in the meantime, but is now again a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo.[6]
Lufthansa Cargo was created as a limited stock company on 30 November 2004, along withLufthansa Cargo Charter. Lufthansa Cargo usesLH (the same IATA code as Lufthansa), as well asGEC (the former ICAO code of German Cargo) asairline codes.
As of 2007, Lufthansa Cargo used to operate a hub for intra-Asian flights atAstana International Airport inKazakhstan, but was forced to relocate it toYemelyanovo 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.[7][8]
In 2004,Jade Cargo International was founded as a joint venture betweenShenzhen Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo, and theGerman Investment Corporation, a German governmental entity.[9] This venture operated a fleet of six Boeing 747 freighters that flew to destinations that include Frankfurt, Chennai, Shanghai, and Chengdu. Jade ended operations in 2011.[9]
As of 2011, all Lufthansa Cargo aircraft were based atFrankfurt Airport, theseventh busiest freight hub in the world, where the airline enjoys a strong co-operation withFraport, 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. Lufthansa Cargo previously had a secondary base atLeipzig/Halle Airport, the European hub forDHL Express, from where it operated flights on behalf of DHL. Activities at this airport gradually came to an end following the formation ofAeroLogic as ajoint venture between Lufthansa and DHL, which henceforth caters for the DHL flights, allowing Lufthansa Cargo to concentrate on other services.[10]
In May 2011, Lufthansa Cargo opened another hub atRajiv Gandhi International Airport inHyderabad, India, to transport temperature-sensitive goods, especially pharmaceuticals, between South East Asia and Europe (and onwards to the United States).[11]
In 2019, heyworld GmbH was founded as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo with a focus on eCommerce logistics.[12] The company and another Lufthansa subsidiary was planned to benefit from theAirbus A321F operations.[13]
In September 2020, Lufthansa Cargo confirmed it was retiring its remainingMcDonnell Douglas MD-11F during 2021 despite the grown freight demand in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[14] The last MD-11F flight took place on 17 October 2021.[15]
In June 2024, Lufthansa Cargo announced the inauguration of its first freighter services fromMunich Airport with scheduled flights toIstanbul.[16]
As of May 2021[update], Lufthansa Cargo serves 57 cities worldwide.[17]
As of August 2025[update], the Lufthansa Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft:[18]
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A321-200/P2F[19] | 4 | — | |
| Boeing 777F | 12[20] | 1[21] | |
| Boeing 777-8F | — | 7 | Deliveries between 2027 and 2030.[21] |
| Total | 16 | 9 |
The initial fleet of Lufthansa Cargo previously belonged toGerman Cargo, and was expanded by cargo-converted former LufthansaBoeing 747-200s. From 1998, the airline began to gradually phase out all other aircraft types in favour of a fleet entirely consisting of theMcDonnell Douglas MD-11 (which Lufthansa received as freighter versions in 2001 after MD-11 production ended) version and its successor, theBoeing 777 freighter.In March 2011, an order of fiveBoeing 777F was announced, the same aircraft type which had earlier been chosen forAeroLogic.[22] 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 theCOVID-19 pandemic.
With the delivery of the firstBoeing 777F, Lufthansa Cargo started to name their aircraft using typical greetings of the countries they serve. The first 777F was namedGood day, USA, while an MD-11F was namedBuenos días México for example.[23]
In October 2024,Lufthansa CityLine transferred all four of itsAirbus A321-200/P2F to Lufthansa Cargo which it had operated for them.[19]
Over the years, the following aircraft types were operated:[citation needed]
| Aircraft | Total | Introduced | Retired | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737-200F | 3 | 1993 | 1995 | |
| Boeing 737-300SF | 1 | 1994 | 1997 | |
| Boeing 747-200F | 10 | 1993 | 2005 | |
| Douglas DC-8-73F | 5 | 1993 | 1997 | |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11F | 19 | 1998 | 2021[15] |
Media related toLufthansa Cargo at Wikimedia Commons
| Subsidiaries |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Incidents and accidents (all subsidiaries, while owned) | |||||||||||
| Destinations | |||||||||||
| Key personnel |
| ||||||||||
| Related articles |
| ||||||||||
