Lufthansa Cargo to offer digital freight capacity booking

Lufthansa Cargo has released plans to offer digital freight capacity booking in a new partnership with the software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, cargo.one.

The Berlin-based SaaS company – turning a year old in August – serves as a platform for carriers to host and market their available capacity to forwarders. The service already offers capacity on Austrian Airlines and EuroWings, both subsidiaries of the Lufthansa Group.

“The reality is that, in most cases, the rates offered do not give access to capacity,” said Oliver Neumann, founder of cargo.one. During times of high cargo demand, cargo.one’s service offers airfreight forwarders “access to capacities with immediate confirmation at live spot rates.”

Lufthansa Cargo has been a vocal proponent for the digitalization of the airfreight industry, announcing a change in policy back in March to charge an extra €12 processing fee per transaction for customers that choose not to opt for its electronic air waybills, as opposed to the traditional paper method.

“Digitization allows information to be distributed around the globe in fractions of a second,” said Peter Gerber, chair of the board at Lufthansa Cargo. “This has given rise to new expectations with which both carriers and freight forwarders are confronted.”