A Lufthansa HON is a frequent flyer who earns 6,000 points within a calendar year in the Lufthansa Group’s Miles & More program. These HON Circle members travel comfortably with all amenities in First Class.
Although Lufthansa Cargo subsidiary, time:matters, does not award special bonus points for its shipments, many enjoy similar luxury conditions as offered to Lufthansa Group’s premium class passengers. And this ‘HON cargo’ segment is growing disproportionately.
Premium Express
This is because more and more airlines are offering special services for particularly urgent or extremely valuable air freight consignments. Due to this growing demand, time:matters is expanding its competence in the area of premium express handling services. These are highly personalized services based on electronic messaging, and for which dedicated courier terminals form the nucleus.
This is illustrated at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. time:matters operates its own handling line as a subtenant within the local warehouse run by the Sino-German handling joint venture, Shanghai Pudong International Airport Cargo Terminal (PACTL). This is done in conjunction with a fast lane, speeding up the personalized carriage of shipments from the aircraft stand to the company’s express terminal. The same applies to exports travelling in the opposite direction. The existence of a fast lane shortens the throughput of items enormously.
Tail to tail services
Transit shipments processed tail-to-tail by local time:matters staff, also benefit from the HON status. “It is an extremely efficient solution that’s very much in demand,” states COO, Lars Krosch. He adds to this that “the entire set-up and processes are audited and are part of contractual agreements with airlines that offer premium conditions for air freight shipments in close consultation with us.” This special segment offered by time:matters has developed rapidly in recent times, and would bring benefits to the Chinese market.
The country is no longer a pure job shop, but the industry in conjunction with its suppliers has made great progress. From a logistics perspective, the domestic market is therefore also becoming increasingly interesting, including green products and technologies, Krosch notes.
However, the executive confirms that industrial trends such as ‘China + 1’ or the re- or nearshoring of production plants to avoid political and financial risks, is growing. Beneficiaries are Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines or Indonesia. “We are already well positioned in the entire region,” reassures Krosch.
In addition to Shanghai, time:matters also operates courier terminals in Munich and – a significantly larger one – at Frankfurt Rhine-Main Airport. The program is to be expanded by integrating other locations, the manager announces.
time:matters operates freighters
As far as the current business situation is concerned, the European automotive industry is currently experiencing significant challenges and is facing considerable pressure. Therefore, the demand for time-critical shipments is volatile. In contrast, medical technology items, life science products, semiconductors and urgent aircraft parts are running very well.
To speed up intra-European supplies, time:matters operates a small fleet of Dornier, Cessna, Saab and ATR freighters. They serve the Scandinavian countries, Spain, France, and Italy, overnight. For urgent shipments to the UK and Ireland, the agent uses the capacity of a Lufthansa Cargo A321 freighter, which serves the route Frankfurt – Birmingham – Dublin five times a week from Monday to Friday. These shipments are handled by the own time:matters courier terminal in Frankfurt.
