Condor cargo efforts take flight

Condor’s rapid fleet modernization, plus experienced cargo team, fuels freight growth.

For many of its 70 years aloft, Condor Airlines was a no-frills German carrier flying mainly tourists to popular vacation spots in Europe for low fares. Owned by a consortium of airlines including powerhouse Lufthansa, it operated a mish-mashed fleet including vintage Boeing 767s, 757s, a 747 jumbo jet and early vintage Airbus 320 and A300 narrowbody jets.

Yet one thing was missing in its product portfolio: air freight.

Condor’s Transformation

No longer. In one of the more dramatic transformations in the airline industry, low profile Condor, which made its first flight to the Holy Lands in a Vickers Viking prop plane in 1956, claims it has one of the youngest aircraft fleets of any European carrier with seven more of the hot-selling, long-haul, wide-bodied A330-900neo on order over the next six years. Belly cargo capacity is 35,000 pounds per flight.

In addition to its focus on the long-haul market, Condor is also drawing a bead on the short and medium haul routes, acquiring 43 A32Xneo narrow-body aircraft to completely modernize the fleet by 2029. Maximum cargo capacity for the plane is 35,000 pounds depending on passenger luggage loads.

For global shippers and forwarders, the emphasis over the last two years, --operating a fleet of approximately 60 aircraft - Condor has built an international cargo program that feeds its current 90 city network including 12 of North America’s largest markets.

Condor operates scheduled and occasional cargo flights and while known for its budget passenger fares, cargo rates these days are on a par with major global airlines, a Condor official says.

However, despite its recent growth and repositioning, Condor is still a stealth player that is not given to breast-beating. It is a low-key airline that, under current management, has taken bold steps to distinguish its brand.

For example, in 2022, Condor introduced its rebranding and is known for its colorful stripes that make a bold, whimsical, visual statement. In first quarter 2026, the airline will move into the new state-of-the-art Terminal 6 at New York’s JFK International Airport alongside 14 mostly global carriers like Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Austrian Airlines and SWISS, elevating its visibility.

To help shake off its old identity as a low-cost largely charter carrier, Condor has added some attractive passenger perks including a business class cabin with lie-flat, direct-aisle seating, Wi-Fi, and full meals ranging from salmon filets, chicken breast filets and exotic pasta dishes. Recently, its inflight wines poured topped its better-known carriers in a regional competition.

With its fleet modernization program and an expanded route network that began under the leadership of former CEO, Ralf Teckentrup, all the ingredients were in place to broaden Condor’s focus on freight a strategy essentially championed by two former senior Lufthansa executives, who also had extensive air freight experience during their tenure with the giant German airline.

The two are current CEO Peter Gerber—who spent 30 years with Lufthansa including several years at Lufthansa Cargo as well as at Brussels Airlines—and Cargo Director Thilo Schaefer who is responsible for air freight at Condor.

Selling Air Freight

Schaefer was no stranger to Condor. Like Teckentrup and Gerber, he also had more than 20 years with Lufthansa, which included a senior management post running Lufthansa Cargo stations worldwide. When he was approached by Gerber, Schaefer was running his own independent air cargo consultancy and maintained close ties with key international forwarders. The prospect of a new modernized fleet and extensive route network drew him to Condor.

In an exclusive interview with the American Journal of Transportation, Schaefer says he was quickly convinced that Condor was committed to a total “evolution of its existing cargo operation and that’s what we could also share with forwarders and customers. We said, ‘hey guys, forget about the Condor of the past. Today, we fly primarily to business destinations, and we fly year-round.’”

Reaching out to forwarders did not trigger immediate bookings. “The feedback we got from forwarders was that they did not even know about Condor being a serious player in the air freight business and they did not even have us on their call list,” says Schaefer. “They thought of us as a leisure cargo operator only. But soon, my sales team and I received calls noticing that we have changed, that we are a different animal, so let’s talk about some cooperation.”

Since then, Condor has transformed itself into an active member in the high revenue, high value classic air cargo world. Recently it has been strengthening its cargo operations with the IATA CEIV Pharma Certification that was received in November 2024.

“The transportation of pharmaceutical and healthcare products is highly sensitive by nature,” contends Schaefer. “We are delighted Condor has been awarded the CEIV Pharma Certification, demonstrating our ability to meet critical challenges such as maintaining cold chain integrity, speed and reliability. We are committed to strengthening this segment.” Schaefer believes Condor has become a “specialist” in air freighting delicate commodities such as flowers, fruits and vegetables. “We don’t export them out of Germany but out of the states on the return flight. We handle, for example, ferns for flower bouquets.”

Switching Aircraft

Switching from older Boeing aircraft to new generation Airbus jets has given Condor and its forwarder/customers greater efficiencies on certain destinations, insists its cargo director. “But what’s important is that we now load standard pallets that do not fit on the former 767s.”

Scheduling changes as well as the new product portfolio have made Condor more attractive to forwarders and shippers, he points out, “In larger transatlantic gateways like New York, Toronto and Seattle, we have gone from seasonal to year-round service,” says Schaefer. “Combine that with our efforts to work with partner airlines in larger hub markets such as Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Canada’s WestJet or Copa Airlines which give us greater connectivity and it makes it easier for forwarders to book and block with confidence,” he adds. Soon, Schaefer was pinpointing cargo opportunities with Condor’s passenger flights, particularly on transatlantic routes from Germany and Europe to the US and Canada. On flights to Las Vegas, the bellies of the A330s held containers filled with high-value slot machines, he says. Los Angeles and San Francisco Condor flights transport technology products and spare parts made in Amsterdam and Eastern Europe.

Schaefer has also teamed up with another airline, which he will not identify, that “flies thousands, millions of iPhones from China to Frankfurt and then Condor flies them to the US west coast. It’s a nice contract.”

Blue Water Destinations

It’s not just the major US markets like Boston and Miami that Schaefer and his cargo colleagues are targeting. “We fly to all these nice blue water destinations but there is little cargo volume on the outbound,” he explains. “But on the return, we are filled with perishables. In fact, we are the second biggest importer of perishables into Germany.”

After years of handling so-called leisure cargo as accommodation to its vacationing passengers, Condor has quite quickly transformed itself into serious player with its modern fleet of belly aircraft and growing route network. Under Schaefer, it became certified to transport pharmaceuticals, serving prime destinations like Switzerland and Boston among many others.

Switching from older Boeing aircraft to new generation Airbus jets has given Condor and its forwarder/customers greater efficiencies on certain destinations, contends its cargo director. “In some cases, it’s 50% again and for other stations only 30%. But what’s important is that we can now load standard pallets that did not fit on the 767s.”

Scheduling More Attractive to Forwarders

Scheduling changes have made Condor more attractive to forwarders and shippers, he points out. “In larger transatlantic gateways like Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles, we have gone from seasonal or summer to year-round service,” says Schaefer. Combine that with Condor’s efforts to work with partner airlines in larger hub markets such as Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Canada’s WestJet “which gives us great connectivity and makes it easier for forwarders to book and block with confidence,” he says.

Condor has moved into Mexico and Latin America in a clever way. Instead of flying directly to crowded Mexico City, it sticks with its traditional philosophy of serving a vacation market, in this case, Cancun, and using road feeders throughout the county to deliver and collect cargo. Also, for greater flexibility, it has daily Cancun flights to give forwarders with urgent freight options instead of just one flight a day, Schaefer says.

As this is written, Condor has what Schaefer calls a “close cooperation” with COPA Airlines for moving its freight deeper into South America, via the Dominican Republic, the long popular vacation destination. But COPA only flies narrow body jets.

Schaefer is tight lipped about a report that Condor may be working on a “cooperation” with a larger airline that flies widebody aircraft throughout South America with, of course, greater cargo capacity.

Indeed, Condor is clearly spreading its cargo wings globally. It has a little-known partnership with giant Emirates Cargo and operates four flights a week between Frankfurt and Bangkok on a year-round basis and daily flights with its winter schedule. According to Schaefer, the air cargo demand from Asia to Europe is “really, really high.”

As for the Emirates linkup, there is very little activity now. Schaefer adds that Condor does not fly to Hong Kong or Singapore and would not say when service might be launched.

Nevertheless, Condor Cargo is not constricted by time or distance in forming new airline partnerships. In fact, in mid-2024, the airline took a major leap forward by partnering with cargo.one, the worldwide digital platform for instant air cargo customer quoting, pricing, booking and sales. “This contributes significantly to our digitization strategy,” says the Condor cargo director.

Sums up Schaefer: “This collaboration with cargo.com can guarantee that every Condor customer receives an excellent experience in 121 countries. But we are also working with other partners to ensure that our customers can book via all available cargo sales channels and have a 24/7 booking opportunity.”