From flying crate to jumbo freighter
Logistics industry celebrates 100 years of air cargo in Germany
First air cargo flight in Germany 100 years on – the logistics industry celebrated the jubilee of its origins during the month. On 19 August 1911, a single-engined Harlan took off from a grass strip in Berlin Johannisthal carrying just cargo. On board that inaugural cargo flight bound for Frankfurt on the Oder were the latest issues of the Berliner Morgenpost daily.
Today, one hundred years since that first air cargo flight in Germany, airfreight is indispensable for the transport of goods in the global economy. “Airfreight underpins growth and drives our successful economy,“ observed Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Dr. Christoph Franz. “For Germany especially, as the world’s second biggest exporting nation, a functioning and efficient air cargo industry is of existential importance.“
The centenary was celebrated at a variety of events. They kicked off with a presentation of the book “Airfreight is my life – 100 Years of Air Cargo in Germany”.
The book, authored by History Professor Rainer Gries and Katharina Krovart in close collaboration with Vienna University and Lufthansa Cargo, is a fascinating narrative of the industry’s evolution: The story is brought alive on a personal note as present-day witnesses, cargo legends and history experts recall the highlights and their experiences down the years.
On 18 And 19 August, the 2. ZEIT Conference Logistics & Mobility took place at the Sheraton Hotel at Frankfurt Airport. Prominent figures from the political domain, business and the scientific world, joined in a debate on the future and challenges of the air cargo industry. Distinguished guests, among them the regional prime minister of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, Lufthansa Executive Board Board Chairman and CEO Dr. Christoph Franz, former German foreign minister and vice-chancellor Joschka Fischer, and the CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, Dr. Frank Appel, discussed key issues in the industry, foremost sustainability, customer-focused mobility, airport infrastructure and security. Industry representatives were liberally sprinkled among the attentive audience. The media were there in force.
Dr. Frank Appel, CEO Deutsche Post DHL, underlined the importance of night flights. That was precisely the issue, he pointedly remarked, that had prompted his company to switch its hub from Brussels to Leipzig. As talk turned to sustainability, former foreign minister Joschka Fischer impressed on Lufthansa Cargo Chairman Karl Ulrich Garnadt the need to make the wider public more aware of the environmental responsibility and commitment of Lufthansa Cargo. The air cargo industry is not yet seen as “green“, he said.
The first day of the conference drew to a pleasant close in a relaxed atmosphere at the Lufthansa Technik International Maintenance (LTMI) hangar. Dr. Karl Rudolf Rupprecht, FRA F/VO, welcomed the conference participants on a warm summer evening before presenting the special centenary livery designed as part of the 100-year jubilee celebrations for an MD-11 freighter. The freighter is now travelling the globe as the flying jubilee ambassador.
On the centennial anniversary day, on Friday 19 August, many of the legendary figures in airfreight history joined Lufthansa Cargo’s other guests at a gala evening at the Lufthansa Training & Conference Center in Seeheim, to enjoy a colourful and emotional stageshow. Among the guests, young and old, were onetime Lufthansa Cargo Chairmen, Wilhelm Althen and Jean-Peter Jansen. Memories enlivened the revue, not least with the presence of 90 year-old Gail Halverson from the USA and one of the heroes of the Berlin Airlift in 1948/49. Moreover, more than 3,000 euros were donated in a tombola for Cargo Human Care. A generous gesture, alongside the centenary of air cargo, that kept the guests celebrating into the early hours of the morning...