The McDonnell Douglas MD-11F cargo planes should have left the Lufthansa Cargo fleet long ago, but things turned out differently. In the meantime, only four copies are flying for the crane's cargo offshoot, but a little longer than last announced.

In the previous year, Lufthansa announced that the three-jet engines will be phased out by spring 2021. The strategy was changed again. Now a spokesman told Aero.de that the four MD-11Fs will remain in operation until autumn 2021. A copy of the D-ALCI was recently sold to the United States of America.

Lufthansa has been replacing the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F cargo aircraft with Boeing 777Fs for some time. A total of ten copies were ordered. The bottom line is that the fleet is to be reduced, which will inevitably lead to the reduction of pilot positions. In the previous year, they had around 475 pilots, and in the near future they want to employ only 250 pilots, reports Aero.de, citing company circles. Lufthansa Cargo did not want to confirm this figure and refers to ongoing negotiations.

Aerologic is cheaper without a collective agreement

There is a second cargo airline within the Kranich Group: Aerologic, in which Lufthansa has a stake. This is not subject to the group collective agreement, which is why wage costs there are lower from the employer's point of view. According to this, some Lufthansa Cargo pilots feel like they are being pushed back to their sister company with lower wages.

Before the corona pandemic, Lufthansa Cargo was definitely a problem child, because the global freight volume declined year after year. That changed suddenly in the previous year, so that even passenger planes were used to transport masks, protective gowns, test kits and other medical goods. For the “cargo crane” that also meant that you had your hands full. But there was also a side effect: The “passenger crane” parted ways with numerous large-capacity aircraft, including the Airbus A340-600 and Airbus A380.

Switching to the passenger area almost impossible

Originally, the cargo pilots, who will no longer be needed at Lufthansa Cargo in the future, were offered the opportunity to switch to the cockpit of the four-jet engine. This path should no longer be open, because in the passenger area there are significantly more pilots than needed and on top of that, according to CEO Carsten Spohr, the aforementioned A340s will not have a comeback.

“In times of crisis, LH Cargo is solid as a rock for the group. As a thank you, the team should be downsized and the sister company Aerologic, without a collective agreement, should grow. There is no more efficient way of scaring off your team. We expect that Cargo will at least commit itself to the management of the tenth 777Fs that are at the gateway by cargo personnel, ”explains the Cockpit Association on request. According to unconfirmed rumors, Lufthansa is currently negotiating with Boeing that some orders for the 777-9 will be converted to the classic freight version. This could even have advantages for both sides, because the 777X program is in crisis and will be delayed. At the same time, experts expect a consistently high demand for cargo. It is unclear whether the “cargo crane” can benefit from this. The machines could also be floated in at Aerologic.