Cathay Pacific Cargo has relocated the handling of its freight at Frankfurt Airport to the Lufthansa Cargo Center as part of the joint business agreement between the two carriers.

“Cathay Pacific Cargo’s move into the Lufthansa Cargo Center is another important step in furthering our collaboration,” said Simon Large, director of cargo at Cathay. “In addition to providing more direct connections and greater flexibility, we can now offer our customers in Frankfurt the same handling standards that will lead to more efficiency and time savings.”

According to the two airlines, the agreement, signed in May 2016, covers cooperation in areas such as network planning, sales and IT and service expansion. The first shipment under the joint agreement is expected to be transported from Hong Kong to Europe on February 1, 2017. Customers will be able to book eastbound shipments in 2018.

“We are excited to have reached a further milestone within the partnership, sharing the freight-handling station in Frankfurt,” said Peter Gerber, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo. “This means our customers at the Frankfurt site are now benefiting from the advantages of our cooperation.”

Lufthansa Cargo moved its handling operations in Hong Kong to the Cathay Pacific Cargo Terminal in October 2016.