Lufthansa Cargo renews China partnerships
06 / 11 / 2024
Source: Lufthansa Cargo
Lufthansa Cargo has renewed partnership agreements with Shanghai Airport Authority, Air China Cargo and China Postal Express & Logistics as it increases its focus on the country.
The cargo airline said that the new partnerships are in response to the “booming” Chinese e-commerce sector and the increasing importance of cross-border trade from China, which it said will provide additional growth opportunities in the airfreight industry.
“China’s rapid growth has transformed it into a global economic powerhouse and is now one of the most important growth markets in the airfreight industry,” the carrier said. “With production hubs specialising in high tech-commodities, the country has enormous potential for the airfreight sector.”
The new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shanghai Airport Authority aims to further develop cooperation in focused areas, enhance operational efficiencies, and improve customer experience through new solutions and shared expertise.
“It also recognises the strategic goal of jointly developing Shanghai Pudong Airport into the world’s most competitive Asia Pacific core hub and actively exploring ways to deepen the partnership,” Lufthansa said.
“The last 25 years of partnership through our joint venture have yielded excellent results for both parties. The MoU marks the beginning of our cooperation journey, and we look forward to even closer collaboration in the years ahead,” said Feng Xin, chief executive of Shanghai Airport Authority.
“The MoU represents a significant milestone in our collaboration and sets the stage for a deeper and more fruitful partnership in the future.” said Ashwin Bhat, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo.
“Shanghai is the biggest freight hub for Lufthansa Cargo next to our hub in Frankfurt and the MoU gives us the confidence and commitment to further contribute to business excellence in this strategically important market.”
Lufthansa Cargo has also signed a new MoU with Air China Cargo that will “take the long-lasting partnership of both carriers to the next level”.
Details on what the MoU included were not revealed with the two carriers stating only that they would “work closely on a number of aspects”.
“Lufthansa Cargo is pleased to manifest the long-standing relationship with Air China Cargo with this MoU. The relationship will improve our service offerings to our customers since we share a common commitment to take the cooperation to the next level,” said Bhat.
Air China Cargo chief executive Jun Li added: “The cooperation between the two parties will further stabilise the logistics corridor between China and Germany and will provide customers with more choices and solutions.”
The two airlines said they have worked together for more than three decades and also have a joint warehouse facility, PACTL West, in Shanghai and various handling cooperations in China and Germany.
The final partnership is with China Postal Express & Logistics (CPEL) and is a strategic co-operation framework that includes joint innovation development, capacity and transport offer, improving settlement efficiency, digitalisation, global cooperation, and environmentally sustainable development.
Lin Zejian deputy general manager, CPEL, said: “CPEL and Lufthansa Cargo Airlines have a history of more than ten years of cooperation. The new strategic cooperation is not only conducive to consolidating the existing business cooperation between the two sides, but also can develop more commercial value in new business fields.
“We look forward to the orderly and efficient development of various businesses under the new strategic cooperation framework.”
