Swissport-Losch and Lufthansa Sign Six-year Contract for Munich Hub

Aug. 13, 2010
The new contract, which covers a quarter of Lufthansa’s Munich-based fleet, will extend to some 700 flights a week.

Zurich/Stuttgart/Munich, 13 August 2010 – Swissport-Losch, the aviation services provider that has held a ground handling license for Munich Airport since March of this year, has concluded a six-year contract with Deutsche Lufthansa AG to provide ground handling for the carrier’s Canadair and Embraer aircraft types. The contract, which covers a business volume of around 700 flights a week, will enter into effect on Jan. 1, 2011.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG has concluded a six-year contract with ground services provider Swissport-Losch for the handling of the carrier’s Canadair and Embraer aircraft at its Munich Airport hub. Swissport-Losch is a joint venture between Swissport International, the world’s leading ground handler, and Losch Airport Service, which is active at Stuttgart, Munich, Memmingen, Berlin and Weeze airports. The new contract, which covers a quarter of Lufthansa’s Munich-based fleet, enters into effect on 1 January 2011, and will extend to some 700 flights a week – more than twice Swissport-Losch’s current business volume. Around 300 new personnel will be recruited to handle the expanded activities.

“We are extremely pleased to have won Lufthansa’s business,” says Per H. Utnegaard, president & CEO of the Swissport International Group. “We see this agreement as a further tribute to Swissport-Losch’s performance and potential. We are confident that the experience of hub operations which Swissport has accumulated over the past few years at several international Hubs, including Zurich Airport with Lufthansa’s subsidiary SWISS, can now be applied at Munich with great effect and success.”

Swissport-Losch co-CEO Marc Losch is just as delighted: “We have been providing Lufthansa with ramp agent services in Munich for over 18 months now with our 100 or so staff. We see Lufthansa’s decision to entrust us with these additional duties as a clear sign of their confidence in us, and are greatly looking forward to this major expansion of our business activities.”

Thomas Klühr, head of hub management Munich for the Lufthansa Group, is equally enthusiastic about the new partnership. “We have developed a lot of trust and confidence in Swissport-Losch since they started their ramp activities (as Losch Airport Service in April 2009) and expanded to ground services in March of this year. Our open and transparent collaboration model gives us a sizeable influence over these products and services, and ensures that we are fully and firmly involved in the continuous improvement process.”