Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa Cargo expand relationship and European connections to HKG

Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa Cargo have expanded their partnership with a joint business agreement (JBA) to connect 14 European hubs to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). Previously the pair’s JBA covered only westbound flights from Hong Kong, to Europe.

Seeing the agreement through will enable joint marketing of capacity on both airlines’ freighter aircraft, and belly space on HKG-bound flights from Frankfurt (FRA), Amsterdam (AMS), Barcelona (BCN), Brussels (BRU), Dublin (DUB), London Gatwick (LGW), London Heathrow (LHR), Madrid (MAD), Manchester (MHT), Milan (MXP), Munich (MUC), Paris (CDG), Rome (FCO) and Zurich (ZRH).

The trans-Eurasian trade lane evokes thoughts of high quantities of westward bound e-commerce volumes to European consumers, à la Alibaba, which is investing millions into a hub at HKG, and is set to commence operations in 2023.

However, there is also plenty of demand for capacity on east-bound cargo flights – for European-made products like personal care products, baby formula, and pharmaceuticals, prompting stakeholders in the supply chain to engineer pharma corridors from European hubs to the East Asian airfreight hub.

Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa Cargo have collaborated on IT endeavors and “service enhancements” since the signing of a cooperation agreement back in May 2016. Since then, they have benefited from sharing handling facilities at their respective hubs at HKG and FRA.