Qatar Airways buys 35% stake in Cargolux

Qatar Airways on Thursday announced it had acquired 35 per cent stake in Europe’s leading cargo airline Cargolux for an undisclosed amount.

The agreement was signed in Luxembourg today by Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker and Cargolux President and CEO Frank Reimen in the presence of the Prime Minister of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al Thani, and Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance Luc Frieden.
 
The accord will give Qatar Airways a greater foothold in the growing freight business offering synergies with the cargo operator, which has a global reach from its Luxembourg hub.

Doha-based Qatar Airways Cargo provides freight services to more than 100 destinations, worldwide using the cargo space available on Qatar Airways’ passenger aircraft fleet. In addition, the carrier operates dedicated freighters to over 30 destinations within the airline’s international route map.

Qatar Airways operates a mixed fleet of 98 passenger, cargo and corporate jet aircraft. Its freighter fleet comprises five aircraft – three Airbus A300-600s and two Boeing 777s flying across six continents. The carrier has a further four Boeing 777 freighters due to join its fleet over the next few years.

Cargolux operates a fleet of 16 Boeing 747 freighters flying to over 90 destinations around the world. It will be the launch customer of Boeing’s next generation wide body 747-8 Freighters with 13 of the aircraft-type on order.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “The agreement is the first major step by Qatar Airways towards substantially expanding the cargo side of its operations, a great opportunity to capitalise on a rapid growth business. We seek to fuel our growth plans by further developing our air freight business as a major part of our overall product offering and develop Qatar as a leading global cargo hub and one of the major players in the international freight market by 2015.”