Lufthansa Cargo flies more relief supplies to Haiti
A Lufthansa Cargo MD-11 freighter is flying to Haiti today with 65 tonnes of relief supplies on board for the earthquake victims in the stricken country. The freighter, which takes off from Dusseldorf Airport at 11.50 hours today, has been chartered through the Lufthansa Cargo Charter Agency, a Lufthansa Cargo subsidiary, by the METRO retail group. Another MD-11 special flight chartered by the METRO Group is scheduled to follow in early March. A Lufthansa Cargo freighter had already airlifted relief supplies to Haiti on 25 January. The freighter leaving today was loaded overnight with tents, diesel generators, satellite phones, tools, personal hygiene items and cooking pots as well as materials for schools and children’s toys. Since the airport at Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, is reserved primarily for military use, the freighter will land in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. From there, the relief supplies will be trucked to Haiti.
Lufthansa Cargo has frequently operated emergency flights to disaster areas. The two new special flights operated at cost price will allow the METRO Group to ship urgently needed relief supplies to the quake-stricken region cost-efficiently and quickly. On all three flights together, the German cargo carrier will have transported more than 200 tonnes of relief aid to the Greater Antilles.
Lufthansa Cargo AG
Lufthansa Cargo ranks among the world’s leading cargo carriers. In the 2008 financial year, the airline transported around 1.7 million tonnes of freight and mail and clocked up 8.3 billion revenue tonne-kilometres. The Company currently employs about 4,600 people, worldwide. Lufthansa Cargo focuses on the airport-to-airport business. The cargo carrier serves some 300 destinations in 90 countries with its own fleet of freighters, the belly capacities of Lufthansa’s passenger aircraft and an extensive road services network. The bulk of the cargo business is routed through Frankfurt Airport. Lufthansa Cargo is a wholly-owned Lufthansa subsidiary. In the 2008 financial year, it posted revenues totalling 2.9 billion euros.