Lufthansa Cargo is launching its first direct transpacific freighter flight from Asia to the US.
The carrier made the announcement as it released its winter flight schedule for 2024/2025, offering 89 weekly B777F freighter connections worldwide, seven more than in the summer timetable.
Direct Asia-US freighter
"A significant development in the winter timetable is a transpacific flight: a weekly rotation of a B777F freighter connects Frankfurt via Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) with Los Angeles (LAX) and then returns to the home hub in Frankfurt," Lufthansa Cargo said.
"This is the cargo carrier's first direct connection from the Asian market to the US network, offering cargo customers an even faster, high-quality connection between the two continents."
The cargo carrier noted that by expanding new routes and direct connections, Lufthansa Cargo is underlining its long-term growth plans in a dynamic market environment.
"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," said Ashwin Bhat, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo.
Increased China, India frequencies
Lufthansa Cargo noted that for the winter schedule, the cargo carrier is increasing its frequencies to destinations in India and China to accommodate the continued growth in e-commerce shipments and other goods.
The increase in frequencies, it added, is primarily due to the entry into service of the 18th B777F freighter in the fleet, which was transferred from the Boeing plant in Seattle to Frankfurt in mid-August.
In addition, the A321F fleet will operate up to 34 weekly medium-haul and short-haul flights connecting our two Hubs, Frankfurt and Munich.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Lufthansa Cargo said it is increasing its weekly freighter capacity to Mumbai (BOM) and Taipei (TPE) by one flight per week.
Chennai (MAA) will be served twice weekly in combination with Hyderabad (HYD) or Mumbai (BOM).
With the recent addition of Shenzhen (SZX) and Zhengzhou (CGO) to its route network, the cargo carrier can now offer its customers a total of 50 weekly frequencies to Asia.
In addition, the freighter rotation from Frankfurt via Tel Aviv (TLV) to Cairo (CAI) will be increased by one weekly flight with a B777F.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa Cargo said the continental network will remain largely unchanged with the A321F fleet. Since July, it has also been offering cargo customers, particularly in southern Germany, a direct connection from Munich to Istanbul (IST) and back.
The carrier said the winter schedule 2024/2025 can be booked from October 6 and takes effect on October 27.
In addition to the freighter service, Lufthansa Cargo markets the additional cargo capacity of up to 7,500 flights a week to over 350 destinations served by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines and SunExpress—and since this summer, also on numerous new connections to North America, such as from Frankfurt to Raleigh-Durham (RDU) or Minneapolis (MSP).