On Saturday (17AUG24), the freight carrier welcomed an additional Boeing 777F upon the aircraft’s arrival from the Boeing production site in Everett at its main hub Frankfurt Airport. It is the 18th B777F to join the cargo airline’s fleet, with 6 of this Boeing variant being operated by AeroLogic, a Leipzig/Halle-based, 50/50 joint venture between DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo.
“¡Hola Argentina!” is emblazoned on the aircraft’s fuselage. This welcome greeting is part of a long-standing naming campaign. The program was initiated in 2013, when Lufthansa Cargo kicked off an international ideas contest, encouraging anyone to participate. Today, all of Lufthansa Cargo’s B777Fs have a baptismal name such as “Konnichiwa Japan”, “Buenos días México” or “Jambo Kenya”, to name just three examples. Ashwin Bhat, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo, welcomed the arrival of the latest freighter at its new home base Rhine-Main with these words: “We are delighted to welcome another efficient freighter to our fleet. This will allow us to provide our customers with additional capacity, continue to grow in the air freight market, and enable global business. This means that we can align our network even more closely with our customers’ needs and also offer solutions to market changes at short notice. In addition, the B777F remains the most efficient and modern freighter in its class. Our latest aircraft is therefore another important investment in our modern long-haul fleet and contributing to making air cargo more sustainable.”
Operational flexibility is increased
The aircraft has a range of 9,000 km, reaches a cruising speed of 900 km/h, and offers the market a standard loading capacity of 103 tons. The B777F is currently the best-selling cargo aircraft in the world but is facing increasing competition from the Airbus A350F. Lufthansa Cargo has ordered seven factory-built B777-8Fs for delivery from 2027 onwards, assuming there are no production delays as with most of U.S. manufacturer Boeing’s jetliner programs.
The new Triple Seven freighter can be used to consolidate existing routes or develop new ones. It enables Lufthansa Cargo to react quickly to changing market situations by shifting or increasing transport capacity, which ups its network flexibility.
Lufthansa Cargo’s network comprises 350 destinations
Lufthansa Cargo’s global network is supplemented by four P2F-converted A321 freighters operated on short and medium-haul routes. In addition to Frankfurt, they also connect Munich with Istanbul, offering the market 28 tons of capacity per flight. Furthermore, Lufthansa Cargo manages the lower deck capacities of jetliners belonging to the Lufthansa Passenger Airline, Discover, Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines, and leisure airline, SunExpress. This way, the freight carrier covers a global network encompassing 350 destinations: a number that is soon due to further increase once the belly capacities of Italian’s ITA fleet are included. In contrast, Lufthansa Group member, Swiss International Air Lines manages its own cargo business, including the belly hold capacity of its subsidiary, Edelweiss.
