t could have been, "Big," "Yellow Sky" or even "Synergy." But out of a possible 80 choices, "AeroLogic" was chosen as the name for the joint venture cargo airline to be launched by Lufthansa Cargo and DHL Express.

The moniker turns out to have been the name the two partners picked to explore investment strategies. Even the AeroLogic logo, it seems, will appear in the familiar Lufthansa grey and yellow.

Based at Leipzig in Eastern Germany, AeroLogic is scheduled to begin operations in April 2009 and the partners hope the joint venture breaks even the following year.

Beyond the name, however, the new airline will have little in the way of assets, sales or marketing structure.

In what is described as an "innovative" financing deal, the partners will lease, rather than purchase, eight 777-200 long-range freighters. The 10-year deal has been arranged through the German DVB Bank, which is purchasing the aircraft directly from Boeing. Although the purchase value is $2 billion, DVB will likely get a deal with Boeing as the Avion Group of Iceland, which ordered the eight aircraft in 2005 but later canceled the purchase.

According to DHL Aviation CEO Charles Graham, the first four aircraft will be delivered between February and November next year, with the remaining four slated for delivery in 2010.

"It is envisaged that we will order a further two 777Fs for delivery in 2011, with an additional reserve aircraft in 2012," said Graham.

Aerologic will launch service with just two of its new 777 freighters. The shortfall will be made up by the seven MD-11 freighters, which Lufthansa Cargo has been providing for its existing capacity sharing agreement with the Deutsche Post World Net-owned express partner.

Said Lufthansa Cargo CEO Carsten Spohr: "As the new aircraft are phased in, each of the MD-11Fs will be returned to us at Frankfurt."

It is a prospect that could re-establish Frankfurt as the airline's long-term operational base. The airline was badly mauled in the dogfight over Frankfurt airport's capitulation to put a cap on nighttime flights in return for a third runway. At one stage Lufthansa Cargo was even threatening to leave the German gateway if it did not receive concessions over night flights.

"The return of the MD-11 freighters means we will be able to provide a fleet of 19 of these aircraft type at Frankfurt, in addition to our fleet of six 747 freighters," said Spohr.

Friendlier Digs

Meanwhile, over at Leipzig, which has no ban on night flights, it seems a deal already has been cut allowing Lufthansa Cargo and DHL Express to divide the AeroLogic capacity around April 2009.

DHL wants express capacity between Europe and Asia during the week, while Lufthansa Cargo needs extra lift on weekends to serve key points in Asia, as well as New York and Chicago.

The plan is for DHL to take up 74 percent of the available Aerologic block hours using 777 freighters to fly weekdays to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai, Bombay, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Nagoya, Almaty, East Midlands and Milan.

Lufthansa Cargo will use the remaining 26 percent of block hours to operate its AeroLogic aircraft weekends to Shanghai, Astana, Singapore, Bangkok, Sharjah, Hong Kong, New York and Chicago. But with space sharing agreements thrown into the mix, it's likely the actual capacity split between the two partners will be around 60/40 percent in favor of DHL.

The two operators will continue to market and sell capacity separately. Apart from the capacity split benefits and cost-savings to be gained, both partners see gains for the customer.

"This operation will enable us to provide second day delivery from Europe to Asia for 80 percent of our express traffic flowing on our Asia trade lanes," said Graham. "AeroLogic is set to become a virtual global airline for us."

Mutual Benefit

Graham said DHL would not be entirely reliant on the new airline to provide all of its Asian lift.

"We expect AeroLogic will only carry about 30 percent of our Asia traffic flows, the remaining 70 percent will continue to be carried on other commercial flights," he said.

Spohr said the joint venture too would benefit Lufthansa Cargo customers. "AeroLogic will help us to lower our operating costs, which we will be able to pass on to the customer. It will also enable us to strengthen the service choice to the customer, particular on the routes to and from Asia."

Although a definite capacity demarcation line exists between the two partners, Spohr sees opportunities for Lufthansa Cargo to buy back unfilled capacity from DHL on some Asia sectors. He also seems unfazed by the current glut of capacity in the Asian market.

"That will always be the situation and will probably get worse, said Spohr, "but this still remains the fastest growing market in the world. It will certainly get tougher for the carriers and only those who can operate profitably on these routes will survive - fortunately Lufthansa Cargo falls into this category."

Propped Up

BAE Systems Regional Aircraft is pumping new life into its ATP turboprop freighter.

Last month, UK freight carrier Atlantic Airlines signed agreements with BAE for the long-term lease of an additional six ATP freighters, bringing to 11 the number of the eight-ton freighters the airline will operates. Four of the five ATP freighters Atlantic flies have the large freighter doors and are leased from BAE.

Atlantic Airlines' ATP freighters are configured to operate either as fully containerized aircraft or as a fully bulk-loading aircraft with a vertical transverse net configuration.

BAE projects the no-longer-manufactured ATP has a useful life of between 30 and 40 years. Forty of the 64 ATPs manufactured are expected to become freighters. Of that number, 17 will have the new portside freight doors and 23 will be configured for bulk freight.

A 1992 vintage ATP sells for around $4 million and includes the $500,000 conversion costs, said OAG/BACK.

… Briefly

Personal computer shipments in Europe grew 17.7 percent in the third quarter, including 23 percent growth in Germany, according to Gartner Group. … Forwarder GAC opened a station in Prague. … El Al Israel Airlines changed the security surcharge on cargo shipments from the chargeable weight to the actual weight of the shipments. … Cargo traffic at Alitalia fell 7.8 percent in December on a 5.7 percent cut in capacity, although the load factor on freighters grew 5.6 percentage points to 82.2 points. … British carrier bmi added six-times-weekly flights between London Heathrow and Damman, Saudi Arabia. … Cargo traffic at Paris-Vatry International Airport grew 13 percent in 2007 to 37,700 tonnes, thanks largely to perishables traffic from freight airline Avient. … . Coyne Airways started weekly 747 freighter flights between Brussels and Lagos, Nigeria. ... Lufthansa Cargo will consolidate its core cargo processes - including booking, handling and revenue accounting - with the AdvancedCargo IT system developed by Lufthansa Systems. … The new aviation accord between the European Union and the United States signed last year keeps yielding rewards, with British Airways setting plans to launch service between Paris or Brussels and New York or Newark using six 757s initially. … Africa West Airlines appointed Globe Air Cargo its exclusive general sales agent in the Netherlands, extending the airline's relationship with Globe to nine countries in Europe. Globe is also the airline's GSA partner in the United States. … Abu-Dhabi-based Maximus Air Cargo expanded its relationship with the United Arab Emirates' charity Red Crescent to cover all relief air transport services, regional and internationally. … Air France Cargo will use Traxon Europe's Cargo Data Management Portal or CDMP, to monitor and optimize all of its global air freight shipments. … Illinois-based forwarder SEKO established an office in Saudi Arabia. … Air Menzies International, which acquired freight consolidator UAC in April 2007, re-branded all of UAC's 9 operations under the AMI brand. … Air Astana, the flag carrier of the Republic of Kazakhstan, achieved record growth during 2007, with available seat kilometers up by 42 percent to 6.5 billion compared to 2006. ... Vietnam Airlines expanded its contract with general sales agent Globe Air Cargo to include eight European countries as well as capacity management, handling supervision and equipment control for the carrier's six weekly flights between Vietnam and Paris. ... Industrial shipper Siemens named DHL Global Forwarding its preferred international carrier for Siemens' air and ocean freight business. … Cargo traffic at Munich International Airport grew 11.9 percent in 2007.