Lufthansa recently announced that it plans to cut 3,500 administrative jobs globally. This comes in the wake of an announcement that the Lufthansa Group made an operating loss of €381m for the first quarter of 2012. Lufthansa, in its plan to return to profitability, has set a target of reducing costs in administrative areas by 25% in 2012; it also plans to save €200m in 2012 through what is described as a “Group Wide Purchasing Project”.

In regards the plans to axe 3,500 administrative jobs, Christopher Franz CEO  said “We can only safeguard jobs for the long term and create new openings if we reorganise the administrative functions…

Cargolux made history last week by launching the world’s first Boeing 747-8 freighter full flight simulator at Cargolux’s training centre in Luxembourg. The simulator uses “a new state of the art electric motion system” mirroring the motion and hydraulics of an actual 747-8 freighter very closely.

Frank Reimen, CEO of Cargolux said that ‘The integration of the new simulator into the Cargolux crew training provides us with a more efficient simulator operation. The application of new technologies results in lower energy consumption and a higher fidelity training environment compared to our 747-400F full-flight…

Cargo Volumes for Air France-KLM fell by 3.4%, year on year, in March 2012. Cargo capacity was also down 0.6% when compared to March 2011. The comparative load factor was also down 2.0 points whilst unit revenue per available ton kilometre remained stable.

The main areas of decline were in the Americas and Asia, which fell by 6.3% and 2.8% respectively.

To read the full Air France press releases, please click here………………………….

Lufthansa Cargo recently announced an addition to its global services in China with the addition of the city of Chongqing. Located in southwest China, Chongqing is one of Chinas national central cities, with a population of between 6 and 7 million whilst the municipality has a population of 28.8 million.

Lufthansa Cargo has announced four weekly flights to Chongqing which will be serviced by Lufthansa’s MD-11 freighters.

In addition to the new Chinese service Lufthansa’s freighter network has increased its service to Detroit, the US’s automotive capital to twice weekly services and has set up a new service from Frankfurt to Montevideo,…