German cargo carrier Lufthansa Cargo now offers customers up to 30 weekly South America connections and 21 Asia routes
The capacity cooperation agreement between Lufthansa Cargo and ITA Airways is now almost fully implemented, except for connections to and from the US and Canada.
Rome-headquartered ITA Airways has officially been part of the Lufthansa Group since the beginning of the year. The Group initially acquired a 41% stake in the Italian airline, with the aim of acquiring further shares.
Lufthansa Cargo subsequently began marketing the cargo capacities on ITA Airways routes in June.
Lufthansa Cargo has been gradually taking over the marketing of the Italian airline's belly capacities on all continental and intercontinental routes under its own Air Waybill (AWB) prefix.
The airline said that the cooperation had been further expanded with the start of its winter flight schedule on 26 October.
ITA cargo shipments are now also being transported under Lufthansa Cargo's own AWB number 020 on flights originating in Rome-Fiumicino Airport (FCO).
Within the last two weeks, more than 1,000 tons of freight have already been transported in the cargo hold of ITA Airways passenger aircraft.
By adding additional routes from FCO, which became Lufthansa Cargo's fifth European hub in May, Lufthansa Cargo said it is expanding its range of belly capacities by around 20%. Other European hubs include Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, and Brussels.
Customers will benefit from expanded routing options and greater flexibility in the intercontinental network, stated Lufthansa Cargo.
Effective immediately, up to 30 additional weekly cargo connections to South America (Buenos Aires EZE, Rio de Janeiro GIG, Sao Paulo GRU) and up to 21 additional flights per week to Asia (Bangkok BKK, New Delhi DEL, Tokyo-Haneda HND) are now available.
In addition, seasonal connections from Rome to Mauritius (MRU) and Malé (MLE) are offered. Up to 71 weekly connections are available to and from North Africa (Algiers ALG, Cairo CAI, Accra ACC, Dakar DSS, Tunis TUN) and the Middle East (Dubai DXB, Riyadh RUH).
Lufthansa Cargo’s new hub also expands its intra-European RFS and continental network and enables closer connections to the existing hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels and Vienna.
Connections to and from the US and Canada are currently still excluded until regulatory approval has been obtained.
"Lufthansa Cargo's first cargo shipment connections from Rome are an important milestone in the expansion of our global network for our customers," said Ashwin Bhat, chief executive of Lufthansa Cargo.
"Our customers benefit not only from numerous new cargo connections around the world, but also from a powerful hub in southern Europe. This makes our network the broadest in Europe and once again underlines our ambition to offer our customers even better transport solutions in line with our purpose ‘Enabling Global Business'."
