The route joint venture between ANA Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo is still alive and has not, as many had feared, faded away. In contrast, it is expected to be restarted at the end of Q1 2025. This was announced by Nicole Mies, Head of Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility at Lufthansa Cargo, when approached by CargoForwarder Global. The JV was suspended in SEP23, after nine long years, and has been dormant since then.
The reason for the suspension are the ongoing negotiations between the holding company of All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) about their planned merger. They include many confidential aspects such as sensitive data on the cooperation between the Japanese and German cargo airline.
Endless discussion
ANA Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo have been cooperating for almost a year now, by means of an interline agreement. So, they are still in constant contact, albeit well below the JV threshold. This is likely to remain the case for another six or seven months, possibly even until April or May next year. The timing of the restart depends on when ANA and Nippon Cargo will finally ink their merger.
The JV concept was developed by Karl Ulrich Garnadt, the former CEO of Lufthansa Cargo, and his team. It followed the disappointment of WOW, a cargo alliance set up in 2000 between Lufthansa Cargo, SAS Cargo, JAL Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo. WOW existed for 10 years and finally dissolved in 2010, due to the lack of compatible reservation systems, a joint sales strategy and internal competition for the transportation of shipments.
Metal neutrality concept replaces WOW
Shortly after WOW was dissolved, Mr. Garnadt came up with a different plan: “We will form a completely new type of partnership with hand-picked carriers, which will include key requirements such as joint network planning, uniform pricing and coordinated sales activities as pillars of the pact,” the manager announced to media representatives at the time.
That happened in 2013, and a year later, he kicked off the deal by announcing a joint venture between Lufthansa Cargo and ANA Cargo based on metal neutrality for standard freight shipments on flights between Europe and Japan. The biggest difference to WOW: the transport prices agreed between the two partners are not subject to antitrust law and can therefore not be questioned by regulators. In 2017, under the direction of Garnadt’s successor, Peter Gerber, the JV between United Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo on routes between the USA and Europe followed on the basis of metal neutrality.
Speed products will be included in the Cathay-Lufthansa-Swiss JV
Next came the cooperation between Lufthansa Cargo and Cathay Pacific on flights between Europe and Hong Kong. It is based on the joint distribution of capacity, uniform pricing, coordinated handling activities of shipments and booking portals able to communicate with other. “The ‘metal neutrality’ covers almost the entire product range ex Hong Kong. With the exception of our most recent product, td.Zoom,” reports Nicole Mies. She went on to say: “Ex Europe, we are currently planning to expand the spectrum beyond General Cargo, to include the speed products, td.Pro and td.Flash.”
In 2022, Swiss WorldCargo joined the alliance, giving the carrier access to the networks and capacities of Lufthansa Cargo and Cathay Pacific also by interlinking their booking systems. This is the current status. Meanwhile, negotiations between ANA and NCA regarding their takeover are continuing. There is no word on the duration of the talks.
