SWISS is adding two new destinations exclusively for freight shipments to the regular route network of its airfreight division Swiss WorldCargo: Seoul, South Korea, and Lima, Peru.

The first cargo flight to Seoul in South Korea will take off today, 15 January. The flight, operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, connects Zurich and Switzerland with one of Asia's largest economic centres. A variety of products will be transported, including general cargo, spare parts, car parts, electronics and other goods. This will be followed on 19 January by the start of cargo flights to Lima in Peru. This connection is also operated with a Boeing 777-300ER and offers additional cargo capacity between Switzerland and South America. The cargo transported will focus on pharmaceutical goods, machinery and spare parts as well as perishable goods from the region, among others.

​​​​​​​"Thanks to our freight division, we are able to adapt continuously and very flexibly to the prevailing market conditions," says Markus Binkert, Chief Financial Officer, SWISS. "In this way, we can make a continuous economic contribution and ensure the flow of goods between Switzerland, Europe and the world.”

SWISS Head of Cargo succeeds Dorothea von Boxberg
​​​​​​​Ashwin Bhat will take over as member of the Executive Board in charge of Lufthansa Cargo's Product and Sales division on 1 March 2021. The 51-year-old will thus take over the current position of Dorothea von Boxberg, who will become chairwoman of the Executive Board and CEO on the same date.

As Lufthansa Cargo’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ashwin Bhat will be responsible for the external organisation of sales and handling, product, revenue management, pricing, network planning and sales management worldwide.

Bhat has been Vice President and Head of Cargo at Swiss International Air Lines in Zurich since October 2015. He joined the former Swisscargo AG in February 1999 and has held various positions in revenue management, transport management and global area management, until his most recent position as Head of Cargo for Swiss International Air Lines. 

"I am very pleased that we have been able to gain Ashwin Bhat, a highly experienced senior manager within Lufthansa Group, as our Chief Commercial Officer," said Harry Hohmeister, member of the Lufthansa Group executive board and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa Cargo. "With his extensive expertise in the airfreight business as well as his many years of sales experience, he will further strengthen Lufthansa Cargo's leading position in international competition."

Ashwin Bhat, born in 1969, graduated with a Bachelor in Science, Major in Chemistry from the University of Mumbai, India in 1990 and worked for several years as an accounting manager for an airline financial services provider in Mumbai before starting his career in Zurich.

Lufthansa Cargo AG
With a turnover of 2.5 billion euros and 8.9 billion revenue tonne-kilometres in 2019, Lufthansa Cargo is one of the world's leading companies in the transport of air freight. The company currently employs about 4,500 people worldwide. Lufthansa Cargo focuses on the airport-to-airport business. The cargo carrier serves around 300 destinations in more than 100 countries with its own fleet of freighters, the belly capacities of passenger aircraft operated by Lufthansa German Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and SunExpress, and an extensive road feeder service network. The bulk of the cargo business is routed through Frankfurt Airport. Lufthansa Cargo is a wholly owned Lufthansa subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Lufthansa Group’s logistics specialist.

Zurich Airport, December 18, 2020 – On December 18, a SWISS aircraft arrived in São Paulo, carrying over 14 tons of finished COVID-19 vaccines. Flight LX 96 from Zurich to São Paulo had departed Zurich on the evening of December 17. Previously, the shipment had been transported from Beijing to Zurich.

The special cargo was carried in ten Envirotainer RAP-e2 containers, which kept the temperature consistently cooled within a range of 2-8 degrees Celsius.

Together with forwarding partner PGL Brazil, Swiss WorldCargo carried out the shipment on behalf of the Brazilian Butantan institute. Upon arrival, the aircraft was welcomed by several prominent government officials, including the Governor of São Paulo, Mr. João Doria. The total shipment carried close to 2 million doses of finished COVID-19 vaccines.

This successful collaboration and transport further underlines Swiss WorldCargo’s long-standing expertise in complex pharmaceutical transportation.

Swiss WorldCargo
Swiss WorldCargo is the airfreight division of Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS). Headquartered at Zurich Airport, Swiss WorldCargo offers a comprehensive range of logistics solutions for transporting high-value and care-intensive consignments to some 130 destinations in over 84 countries. The extensive Swiss WorldCargo network of airfreight services is further supplemented by daily truck connections between key business centers. As a reliable and innovative service provider within the Lufthansa Group, Swiss WorldCargo is consistently committed to delivering Swiss quality to its airfreight customers, and makes a substantial contribution to SWISS’s overall profitability.