Joint venture airline to start with leased Airbus A300-600Fs and then acquire MD-11Fs
Shenzhen Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo are proceeding with plans to establish a cargo airline in Shenzhen, China. They have decided that the new carrier will launch operations early next year using Airbus A300-600Fs on wet lease, while in the second year it will purchase or dry-lease Boeing MD-11Fs.
"Around 25 September there will be a press conference in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing where two high officers from each of the two governments [German and Chinese] will announce the news," says a senior source at Shenzhen Airlines, which is based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong. A senior Lufthansa executive will be alongside the government officers at the conference.
He says Shenzhen Airlines will own 51% of the new Shenzhen-based cargo airline and Lufthansa and an undisclosed German bank will own the remainder.
It will launch early next year and in the first year of operations use two Airbus A300-600Fs on wet lease for services within Asia, says the source. "After one year we will dry-lease MD-11Fs or purchase MD-11Fs. These will be MD-11s converted from passenger to freighters," he adds.
The MD-11s will be used to launch intercontinental services from China to the USA and Europe and the partners hope to have some round-the-world cargo services on the China-USA-Europe-China routing, says the source.
Lufthansa chairman and chief executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber will be in Beijing in late September, to hold a news conference to mark the 15th anniversary of Ameco Beijing, a maintenance joint venture between Lufthansa and Air China.
LEITHEN FRANCIS / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
