Lufthansa’s freight division, Lufthansa Cargo
has announced in its winter schedule for this year that it will be launching a brand new connection between Los Angeles International Airport
(LAX) and Ho Chi Minh City
(SGN). This will mark the first time that the airline is connecting Asia with the United States.
Lufthansa Cargo
Lufthansa Cargo is the freight subsidiary of the German flag carrier Lufthansa. The airline only operates the Boeing 777F, having retired its last MD-11 in 2021. The airline has an outstanding order for Boeing’s new 777X freighter. (Featured image: Tom Boon – Simple Flying)
- IATA/ICAO Code
-
LH/GEC
- Year Founded
-
1977
- CEO
-
Dorothea von Boxberg
Flight details
The airline says that its new Asia-US connection will provide cargo customers “an even faster, high-quality connection between the two continents.” The airline says that it will operate a weekly Boeing 777F service on the transpacific route. This is but a leg of an overall routing that will see the service return to Lufthansa Cargo’s hub in Frankfurt after its arrival in the City of Angels.
Photo: Lufthansa Cargo
The new route is a testament to the airline’s objective to enable global business through long-term growth in “a dynamic market environment.” Lufthansa Cargo’s CEO, Ashwin Bhat said:
“Lufthansa Cargo is constantly reviewing all possibilities to offer its customers seamless, high-quality connections and to enable global business even more efficiently and sustainably. With a comprehensive review of our existing schedule and network, we have been able to optimize our rotations.
In the future, some of our freighters will have fewer stopovers, allowing our customers to benefit from direct connection and transportation of their freight within our global network.”
Recent growth
With the launch of its winter schedule, the carrier has said that it will be increasing the number of weekly flights it offers with its 777F fleet. It says that this winter it will provide 89 weekly connections, which is an increase of seven compared to its summer timetable.
This comes thanks to the addition of its 18th Boeing 777F, which was delivered brand new from Boeing’s Seattle plant back in mid-August. Ch-aviation data shows that the aircraft is registered D-ALFL. Lufthansa has named it “¡Hola Argentina!” as part of its tradition of attributing aircraft to certain important destinations in its network, preceeded by a greeting in the respective native languages.
A busy winter schedule
This winter, it plans to operate 89 weekly flights with its 777F fleet but also 34 weekly with its A321Fs which are deployed on medium and short-haul flights from the airline’s two hubs in Germany: Munich and Frankfurt.
The long-haul sector will see significant growth, though. For instance, Lufthansa Cargo says that frequencies to Asia will total 50 per week. Not only will services between Mumbai (BOM) and Taipei (TPE) be upped by one weekly flight, but Chennai will also be served twice a week “in combination with Hyderabad (HYD) or Mumbai (BOM),” the carrier said.
Photo: Lufthansa Cargo
The final adjustment includes the addition of one weekly flight on services between Tel Aviv (TLV) and Cairo (CAI) with a 777F. Changes on the European side are limited, although the flight between MUC and Istanbul (IST) which began in June, will be maintained.