LUG air cargo handling has scooped contracts with Etihad Cargo at Munich Airport and Frankfurt Airport.
The cargo handler says the carrier was faced with strong competition and has reorganised itself in Germany and changed its cargo handling partner and took over at Munich this month and will takeover at Frankfurt next month.
Etihad Airways offers two passenger flights per day to each of the German airports. In addition, Etihad full freighters – an Airbus A330-200F, Boeing777-200F) serve Frankfurt twice a week.
LUG’s agreement with Etihad covers cargo handling services, including full freighter, belly cargo and road feeder services handling for Etihad Airways and Etihad partners such as Air Berlin.
LUG air cargo handling managing director and chief executive officer, Patrik Tschirch says: “We are delighted that we have been able to convince a demanding customer such as Etihad Cargo of our high service quality and to land this big contract.
“Key success factors for our cooperation will be a strong customer focus as well as our innovative and consistently efficient operational processes. We expect a freight throughput of some 50, 000 tonnes a year. This gives the company a strong push. The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with headquarters in Abu Dhabi is our first customer in the Middle East.“
Etihad Airways wants to raise its service quality and productivity in Germany as well as lower costs and raise turnover with the change to LUG. It considers Germany a strategic market due to the close economic ties between Abu Dhabi and the UAE and Germany.
After Saudi Arabia the UAE is the most important market for German products in the MENA (Middle East, North Africa) region.
Main exports from Germany are cars, machinery as well as electrical and chemical products. Germany imports primarily aluminium and chemical products from the UAE. Around 900 German companies operate in the UAE and the number is expected to grow.
