Lufthansa Cargo (GEC, Frankfurt International (FRA)) CEO Karl Ulrich Garnadt has said the cargo carrier would be interested in a closer cooperation with Star Alliance partner Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Atatürk/Yesilköy International (IST)). This follows earlier statements by parent Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International (FRA)) that no specific projects would be explored yet as part of talks between Lufthansa and Turkish originally announced last year.

Lufthansa Cargo (GEC, Frankfurt International (FRA)) has taken the government of the Netherlands to court over a traffic rights row that started in March 2012 when the Dutch transport ministry had withdrawn Lufthansa Cargo's traffic rights for flights between Aguadilla Borinquen Rafael Hernández (BQN) and Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS). A final ruling by a court in Den Haag is now due soon. According to Airliners.de, the Dutch transport ministry argues that Lufthansa Cargo would only use Aguadilla Borinquen Rafael Hernández (BQN) as a transit stop for its cargo flights from Latin America to Europe while Lufthansa Cargo argues that it would need to be allocated full traffic rights between Puerto Rico and Europe as part of the EU-US open skies agreement. Lufthansa Cargo currently operates three weekly flights from Aguadilla to Frankfurt International (FRA) that originate in Bogotá El Nuevo Dorado International (BOG) and Quito Internacional (UIO). Cargolux (CV, Luxembourg Findel International (LUX)) currently operates a weekly service from Bogota via Aguadilla to Maastricht Zuid-Limburg (MST) while Martinair (MP, Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)) operates seven weekly flights from Bogota via Aguadilla to Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS). All of these flights mainly carry flowers from Latin America to the Netherlands.

Lufthansa Cargo (GEC, Frankfurt International (FRA)) will start marketing all cargo capacity of Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna International (VIE)) from August 1 as part of a new plan to increase the efficiency and revenues of Austrian’s cargo capacity on passenger flights.

Lufthansa Cargo (GEC, Frankfurt International (FRA)) has threatened to close down its own cargo operations with its fleet of 18 MD-11(F)s in case the German federal constitutional court confirms decisions by a local court in Frankfurt that has enforced a night flight ban for Frankfurt International (FRA).

Lufthansa Cargo (GEC, Frankfurt International (FRA)) and its sister carrier AeroLogic (3S, Leipzig/Halle (LEJ)) have not yet received overflight rights from Russia for the IATA summer timetable 2012 period that has started on March 25. Both carriers have now introduced technical stops in Almaty (ALA) instead of Krasnoyarsk (KJA) for their flights to the Far East. While Russia's current move is thought to be related to its opposition to the European Union emission trading scheme for airlines, Russia had interestingly enough previously forced Lufthansa Cargo to move its technical stops to Krasnoyarsk (KJA) in 2009 by not granting it rights to fly over the country in 2007 and 2008.