Qatar Airways to acquire 35 per cent-stake in Cargolux

Entry with Cargolux Airlines helps Qatar Airways to gain a greater foothold in the air freight business

Qatar Airways has acquired a 35 per cent-stake in Europe’s leading cargo airline Cargolux on 9 June. The agreement was signed in Luxembourg by Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker and Cargolux President and CEO Frank Reimen in the presence of the Prime Minister of the State of Qatar, His Excellency Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al Thani, and Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance Luc Frieden. The shares are sold by the state of Luxemburg. Qatar Airways expects the accord to give them a greater foothold in the growing air freight business offering synergies with the cargo operator Cargolux, which has a global reach from its Luxembourg hub.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said: "The agreement signed today is the first major step towards substantially expanding our cargo operations, a great opportunity to capitalise on a rapid growth business. We seek to fuel our growth plans by further developing our air freight business as a major part of our overall product offering and develop Doha as a leading global cargo hub and develop Qatar into one of the major players in the international freight market by 2015." Qatar Airways was looking forward to strengthening their Doha hub with greater freighter operations that will see Cargolux in the not too distant future serve the airport of Doha. Changing some Airbus A330 into cargo aircraft and with the support of Cargolux, Akbar Al Baker wants to establish Qatar Airways Cargo as a constant in international air freight business.

Qatar Airways operates currently a mixed fleet of 98 passenger, cargo andcorporate jet aircraft. Its freighter fleet comprises three Airbus A300-600s and two Boeing 777. Four more Boeing 777 freighters are due to join the fleet over the next few years. Cargolux operates a fleet of 16 Boeing 747 freighters flying to over 90 destinations around the world. The air freight enterprise will be the first customer of Boeing’s next generation wide body 747-8 Freighters with 13 of the aircraft-type on order.

Quelle: LogEastics
Plattform: www.logistik-express.com