A look behind the scenes

My colleague Wayne Schmitt and I were delighted with the organisation, support and the exciting facts and stories. From everyday processes to unusual shipments such as horses and elephants - we heard it all.

Enthusiasm at every stage

Our guide from Lufthansa Cargo was the perfect choice. She guided us calmly and purposefully through the halls, across the apron and directly to the cargo plane. We heard fascinating stories and interesting facts. The time really flew by.

Highlights and facts

Here are a few highlights that are particularly memorable (no guarantees 😉):

- Diversity of goods: Lufthansa Cargo transports everything from valuables such as gold, diamonds and paintings (yes, even the Mona Lisa!), Formula 1 cars and satellites, to refrigerated goods, hazardous goods and animals such as horses, rhinos, tigers and giraffes. And of course also our "normal" merchandising products.

- Daily volume: Around 15 to 21 aircraft with a total of around 20,000 tonnes of goods are handled every day.

- Boeing 777 capacity: A Boeing 777 can transport 27 large pallet containers on the upper deck and 9 small pallet containers on the lower deck. The standard loading capacity is around 100 tonnes, and the maximum take-off weight is around 300 tonnes.

- Sustainability: The nets and plastic tarpaulins are all made from recycled material. Further development has reduced the weight of the nets from 9 kg to 6 kg and that of the pallet containers by 14 kg.

- Labour input: At peak times, up to 200 employees work on preparing and arranging the goods for transport. Preparing, collecting and assembling the packages and organising them so that the weight and dimensions are perfect takes around 12 hours per aircraft. Loading and securing the goods on the aircraft takes an additional 1.5-2 hours.

It was a fantastic experience! A big thank you to EMO Trans and Lufthansa Cargo!