Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines have signed a cooperation agreement which grants both carriers access to each other’s capacity through codeshare and space-swap agreements.

According to Cargolux, it now has access to NCA’s flights from Frankfurt-Hahn to Tokyo Narita, while NCA has access to Cargolux’s flights from Luxembourg to Narita. The codeshare operation is planned to start in the summer season of 2018.

Under the agreement, Cargolux plans to operate a weekly flight from Luxembourg to Tokyo Narita. Cargolux Italia will stop its operations at Narita but will maintain its services to Osaka Kansai. Cargolux also intends to further develop its operations at Komatsu.

Both airlines consider the agreement as the first step towards a potentially deeper cooperation, according to Cargolux.

Cargolux and NCA both operate fleets consisting only of Boeing 747 freighters.