The Frankfurt-based carrier has commenced round-the-world services taking off from Frankfurt to Hi Chi Minh City, across the Pacific, onto Los Angeles and back to Frankfurt. Operator of the weekly B777F flights is AeroLogic, a DHL/Lufthansa Cargo joint venture (50/50%), though the German freight carrier markets the entire capacity of the aircraft.
This is the first time after nearly twenty years that Lufthansa Cargo is offering the market main deck capacity on different legs spanning the globe. The new TransPac route is the result of lengthy planning and coordination involving many market players, says Lufthansa Cargo spokeswoman, Katharina Stegmann. Economic growth in Vietnam, particularly the e-commerce business, was a strong driver, as were a broad variety of other products. According to initial data, the first flight went very satisfactorily, she summarized. It took off from Frankfurt on 26OCT24 and returned to its home base on 28OCT24.
Growing in dynamic markets
Obtaining the traffic rights for transporting freight shipments from Vietnam to the USA was the precondition for this routing. Without this authorization, there would be a revenue gap – in this case on the leg SGN – LAX, which would render the service unprofitable. “This new freighter connection highlights our commitment to connecting economies by responding to the demand of the rapidly growing economy in Vietnam, which can now be seamlessly connected to the U.S. even faster. This service reinforces our purpose of enabling global business, which is why we are continuously examining the possibilities of establishing new routes and growing in dynamic market environments,” explains Ashwin Bhat, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo.
Including the new flight, Lufthansa Cargo now offers its customers 89 weekly B777F freighter connections, worldwide. This includes 50 frequencies to 17 destinations in Asia, reflecting the strong demand in the region. e-commerce is the main driver of this development. The carrier has a total of 18 777F, with six operated by JV partner AeroLogic. The deployment of the aircraft is based on profit maximization expectations.
First round-the-world flights burned a lot of money
Lufthansa Cargo’s first round-the-world route dates back to 2003, when its former MD-11 freighter aircraft took off from Frankfurt to the USA, commuted to New Zealand on a codeshare agreement with Air New Zealand, continued to Singapore before finally flying back to Germany. The airline’s last MD-11F was retired in OCT21 and replaced by B777F.
The loss-making flights were scrapped after a rather short period of time, Jean-Peter Jansen, former CEO of Lufthansa Cargo told CargoForwarder Global. “The services were heavily requested by crew due to attractive stopovers at Tahiti or some of the Pacific Islands. Since we operated only three flights per week, the pilots enjoyed lengthy stays in nice environments before continuing their duties after the next flight had arrived. And not only them, but they also requested green lights from management for their partners or family members to accompany them.”
These round-the-world flights were an expensive gimmick favored by pilots, not to mention members of the marketing department, recalls Mr. Jansen. Hopefully, the results of the current TransPac flights will not be similar come OCT25.
As this article goes online, a second AeroLogic flight is en route from Saigon to Los Angeles, 36,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
