Frankfurt airport and Lufthansa Cargo have signed a partnership agreement aimed at consolidating the airport's position as Europe's top air-cargo hub amid stiff competition.
"It is our common goal to develop Frankfurt airport as Europe's most attractive air-cargo hub," the companies said in a joint statement.
However, the agreement failed to mask growing tensions between the airport and its leading cargo customer over plans to ban scheduled night-time flights, which will hit freighters and all-cargo carriers hardest.
Lufthansa Cargo repeated its warning that the ban is a threat to its ability to expand its cargo business and called for a "feasible night-time flying arrangement." Frankfurt says it has applied for the ban to secure political backing for its plans to expand the airport.
But the two companies stressed that the disagreement would not hinder their new strategic partnership and joint lobbying of local authorities to approve extra capacity at Frankfurt airport.
The partnership will focus on jointly modernizing Cargo City North, a major freight facility, and linking it with Cargo City South, a cargo area at another part of the airport. The two companies also will join forces to attract international distribution and logistics firms to the airport and jointly invest in developing cargo markets overseas.
Frankfurt airport and Lufthansa Cargo said the partnership is a response to the "increasingly tough" competition in the global air-cargo market. "Everything depends on the quality and efficiency of the total system and on the cooperation between the airline and airport within the system," they said.
Frankfurt in August boosted its cargo traffic to a record high of 171,711 metric tons, a year-over-year increase of 12.9 percent, while passenger numbers were flat for the first time since 2002.
Lufthansa, the world's second-largest cargo airline after Korean Air, carried 146,000 metric tons of freight in August, up 6.5 percent. A 14.1 percent surge on Asia-Pacific routes paced the gain.
By Bruce Barnard
The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
