Lufthansa Cargo-Jade tie up for India cargo business

12 June, 2007:

To bring cargo in and out of India, Lufthansa Cargo AG is likely to rope in the services of Chinese cargo carrier Jade Airways through a tie-up. According to reports quoting Lufthansa Cargo officials, the airline is in talks with China’s Jade Airways to fly in cargo from Shanghai to India.

For Lufthansa Cargo, India is a key air cargo market with a huge growth potential. The airline major is currently in parleys with different airline companies in India to build up cooperation in the air cargo business. Lufthansa currently operates a fleet of 19 of its own aircraft and has several other freighters on charter, sad a report. In 2006-07, the company registered revenues of 2.84 million euros and profits of 81 million euros. The company works in partnership with other cargo carriers, the report added.

Lufthansa believes that it would face challenges with its infrastructural bottlenecks and from this perspective it feels that the Chinese market is more experienced and matured. The Chinese cargo airline, Jade Cargo International, was founded in 2004 by Lufthansa Cargo, which holds 25 per cent operational equity stake in it.

Lufthansa is looking at exploring the possibility of launching cargo ground-handling operations in India in partnership with other airlines. It is also bullish on India's second-tier cities where he believes there is huge potential in terms of transporting goods. Lufthansa is also looking forward to the new airports that will come up in Bangalore and Hyderabad airports hoping that it act as major cargo hubs for the company. Another report said that it is also in talks with Jet Airways to launch a full-fledged cargo airline.