A freightful fifty years
The history of Cargolux, founded half a century ago – on 4 March 1970 to be precise, with its first aircraft taking off on 11 May 1970 – represents a synopsis of the development that the aviation and airfreight industry has undergone in the last 50 years. This quieter phase than usual for the industry, ‘thanks’ to Covid-19, is a good moment to take stock of the airline’s career.
Richard Forson, president and CEO of Cargolux since 2016, was very pleased with his carrier’s 50th anniversary last month. “It’s a remarkable achievement for a cargo airline to celebrate a 50th anni¬versary! All of us here are very proud of how far we’ve come. We’ve overcome so many ups and downs over the years, and have proven time and again how committed we all are to our airline. All this would not have been possible without our customers and partners, whose faith in us has brought us to this memorable moment.”
A start-up avant la lettre
It wasn’t given in any way in 1969 / 1970 that the ambition of the founders would be enough to get Cargolux off the ground in the first place, let alone see it in the air for so long. The company has pan-European roots; it was founded by the Luxembourgian flag carrier Luxair, Sweden’s Salén Shipping Company and by Loftleiðir Icelandic Airlines, which itself was founded in 1944.
At that time, as a glance at the photo album shows our readers, cargo aviation was not yet an established industry in its own right, and the profitability of the investors’ idea of exclusively flying cargo from the heart of Europe seemed questionable to many observers at the time.
But the founders brought their planning process to a conclusion and entered the brand name Cargolux in the company register of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 4 March 1970. The first office was modest, but it was sufficient for the needs of the handful of employees at the time.
The company started out with just one crew, which flew the first aircraft, a leased CL-44, from Stockholm to New York two months later. It carried strawberries and iceberg lettuce to Europe.
A pioneer between propellers and jets
Loftleiðir’s trans-Atlantic business model was a forerunner of today’s low-cost operations. Cargolux’s first aircraft first had to be reconverted again to its original cargo version with a capacity to carry 27 t. Its ‘swingtail’ gave the four-engined CL-44 a unique selling point that made it particularly suitable to transport goods. A second CL-44 enabled Cargolux to start its first regular service (to Hong Kong) in 1970.
The extended version of the CL-44 was able to carry 18% more freight. Cargolux offered 2 t more, namely 34 t, on its DC-8, introduced in 1973. The model took it into the jet age and accelerated the speed of business, reducing the time required for a return flight to Hong Kong to 32 hours.
At the end of the 1970s, B747 Jumbos displaced the smaller jet aircraft, with Cargolux being the first airline to deploy a B747-400F in 1993, when it took deli¬very of the first model of this type after a quarter century of the corporation’s existence. From 2005 onwards Cargolux was a development partner for the B747-8F. Today, its 14 B747-8Fs and 16 B747-400Fs serve no less than 75 destinations with scheduled flights, which are augmented by various charter operations as well as by more than 250 trucking connections.
A future in niches
The ‘Spirit of Cargolux’ includes dedicated perishables services – continuing the tradition of the first shipment carried in 1970 – pharmaceutical consignments as well as ensuring smoothly-functioning supply chains for all of its customers – also in the shadow of Covid-19 (see page 9). The full-freighter operator’s portfolio is also tailored to the specific transport needs of various niche industries.
Half a century of business can’t avoid some less-than-positive headlines, of course, including the loss of the company’s second CL-44, which crashed in 1970 with relief supplies (of all things) on board, and economic and financial crises in the 1980s and 2000s, and involvement in cartels.
After the firm Henan Civil Aviation and Investment took the second-largest stake in the firm (35%), the airline introduced its double-hub network, which is centred on Luxembourg and Zhengzhou. Together with subsidiary Cargolux Italia, Cargolux is equipped for the future – digital and otherwise.
