Lufthansa Cargo launches freighter flights to Hanoi

With a stop in Mumbai, the Boeing 777F reached Hanoi on schedule at 9:40 am.local time on November 3. Lufthansa Cargo has been flying to Hanoi twice a week since then.

In view of the existing two weekly flights to Ho Chi Minh City, the cargo airline is thus doubling its capacity to Vietnam and is the only one in the market to connect the capital Hanoi with Frankfurt. The largest hub in Germany will provide customers with numerous other connections by air and road feeder services within the European Union.

The inaugural flight took place at 12:25pm local time in Frankfurt on November 2, 2022

Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest city and economic centre in the south, and the capital Hanoi in the north have been characterised by remarkable economic growth in recent years. As a production location, Vietnam has gained significant importance and records a high export volume, including Europe.

Accordingly, the demand for air freight transportation is high. In particular, electronics, automotive parts and clothing are among the most frequently flown goods from Hanoi.

Against the background of fewer direct passenger connections with additional loading capacities to Europe, Lufthansa Cargo offers customers attractive transport solutions with its freighter connections and supports Hanoi in its development as a cargo hub. The total of four weekly freighter flights from Vietnam results in a regular cargo capacity of 250 tonnes per week.

All freighter services to Vietnam are operated by AeroLogic with Boeing 777F aircraft. AeroLogic has been a joint venture between DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo since 2007. Lufthansa Cargo's long-haul fleet consists of 16 Boeing 777F aircraft, whose capacity is also marketed by Lufthansa Cargo.

Five of these aircraft are chartered by AeroLogic and operated by AeroLogic crews. The flights all operate under a Lufthansa flight number. Each aircraft has up to 103 tonnes of cargo capacity, distributed among 27 container positions on the main deck and 10 standard pallets on the lower deck, with a range of 9,045km.

The Boeing 777F is one of the most modern and efficient freighters with the best environmental performance. Lufthansa Cargo, like the Lufthansa Group, aims to halve its net CO2 emissions by 2030 compared to 2019 and to achieve a neutral CO₂ balance by 2050.

As part of this, Lufthansa Cargo is investing in the renewal and optimisation of its fleet and deploying it efficiently on routes - both fuel-efficient and partially powered by sustainable aviation fuels instead of fossil kerosene.

"With our freighter connection to Ho Chi Minh City, we have already been closely connected to the Vietnamese market since 2015. With our station opening in Hanoi in the north of the country and thus in an advantageous location to the economic highway to North and Southeast Asia, we are ideally supplementing our transport offering for our customers with another direct connection to Frankfurt and thus also to the European markets," said Ashwin Bhat, chief commercial officer at Lufthansa Cargo. "Our route network is growing with frequencies and destinations to highly demanded routes, including Hanoi, Seoul or Hong Kong. We look forward to expanding our customer network along with the route network by creating connections, as well as by transporting goods."

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