50 Shades of Fast over at Lufthansa Cargo, these days. Three years ago, its original premium express product for very time-critical cargo, td.Flash, (premiered in 1998), was joined by td.Zoom, which was sold as the fastest time-definite speed, along with proactive monitoring and dedicated premium customer service, and positioned above td.Flash in terms of urgency. Now the cargo airline has launched ‘Emergency’ for “critical shipments with absolute priority”. This is an Add-on Service that can be sprinkled onto either of the afore-mentioned products, to elevate them to the highest priority, “regardless of the booked Product-Speed combination, shipment size or weight [up to the aircraft’s maximum cargo capacity], even for short-notice bookings”. Interestingly, it comes with a Money-back Guarantee – something that the airline originally introduced with td.Flash in its early days but later removed again. It now promises: “if the shipment is not available for collection within six hours after the specified Time of Availability, the guarantee applies in accordance with the applicable terms and conditions.”
Like td.Zoom, it assures “24/7 proactive shipment monitoring during transportation” and round-the-clock support through a dedicated English and German-speaking customer service team but also refers to its online eTracking service. “Additional dedicated monitoring is provided at Lufthansa Cargo’s hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, and Vienna. In Frankfurt, shipments are handled around the clock via the time:matters Courier Terminal in Cargo City North. Its direct access to the apron and dedicated handling processes enable particularly short transfer routes and support fast, prioritized handling,” the release explains, stating that the Add-on Service Emergency is available at over 200 stations and that it can be booked at short notice – up to the respective Latest Acceptance Time (LAT) – on the airline’s eBooking platform but with the caveat “subject to available capacity”. In the event of capacity shortage, Lufthansa Cargo sales staff will help with finding alternative solutions. “The Add-on Service is available for the Products General Cargo, Dangerous Goods, Passive Temp Support and Vulnerables, in combination with the td.Flash and td.Zoom speeds,” it summarizes. Emergency “is tailored for highly critical shipments, both planned and unexpected, that require the highest transport priority and dedicated handling throughout the entire journey. Examples include urgently needed spare parts and machinery, as well as life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical samples, for which reliable transportation and guaranteed uplift must be ensured.”
