Lufthansa, ANA expand their JV

Lufthansa Cargo and All Nippon Airways (ANA) will extend their much-lauded joint venture this July by merging both of their feeder networks. The new agreement builds on the current JV, which connects Lufthansa Cargo’s services in Germany, Austria, France, the U.K. and Belgium to intercontinental flights.

As of July 12, all European countries will benefit from access to the JV’s network. “We are now offering our customers throughout all of Europe even greater flexibility and speed. This is another important step with ANA,” said Peter Gerber, CEO and chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Cargo. “Our customers also gain time through joint handling at numerous stations.”

According to Lufthansa, the joint network will include more than 90 weekly direct connections between Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Brussels and Vienna in Europe, and Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda, Nagoya and Osaka in Japan. The carrier noted that shipments can also be sent via Haneda to the industrial hub in Fukuoka in the south of Japan.

ANA received antitrust immunity for the JV from the Japanese Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport, effective September 2014, after filing for it earlier that year. In addition, the JV was positively assessed by external counsel for compliance with relevant EU antitrust regulations.