Sunday, November 8, 2026
The news that moves freight
Air Nov 8, 2026 · 7 min read

Lufthansa, ANA, NCA and SWISS revive a Japan–Europe cargo tie-up

ANA’s new freighters are looking for a European partner, and Lufthansa wants the job

Four airlines want to sell Japan–Europe air cargo together again. On 6 November, Lufthansa Cargo, SWISS WorldCargo, All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) announced a memorandum of understanding. An MoU is a non-binding agreement to explore a deal. It is not the deal itself.

The headline point is history. Lufthansa Cargo and ANA set up a Japan–Europe cargo joint venture in 2014. A joint venture, or JV, is where airlines share revenue on a route and sell their space as if they were one carrier. ANA suspended it in September 2023, citing a restructuring of its cargo business, according to Air Cargo News. The new talks would bring it back, this time with SWISS WorldCargo and NCA’s freighters inside.

Our view is simple. This is less about Lufthansa and ANA rekindling an old friendship and more about what ANA bought in between. ANA now owns NCA’s fleet of Boeing 747 freighters. In our view, it needs a European partner to help fill them. Lufthansa Group wants the job. For forwarders, that points to a better-connected product and fewer independent sellers on one lane.

What was actually signed

The four carriers will assess options including better network connectivity, more routing and capacity choices, and more flexibility in service, Air Cargo News reports. Lufthansa Cargo and ANA will “explore the potential resumption” of their JV, now extended to SWISS WorldCargo and NCA.

That is the full extent of the commitment. Neither Air Cargo News nor STAT Times reports any timeline, capacity numbers, revenue figures or route list. The announcement does not mention competition approval either. In our view, a revenue-sharing JV will need competition regulators to accept it before it can start.

The quotes are warm and general. Ashwin Bhat, chief executive of Lufthansa Cargo, said: “Japan is an important market for Lufthansa Cargo”. He added that the carriers “now want to explore how we can leverage our respective brand strengths, networks and expertise”.

Kenichi Wakiya, ANA’s executive vice president for cargo marketing and services and chief executive of ANA Cargo, said: “We are pleased to renew our dialogue and broaden our cargo joint venture”. He also said: “All Nippon Airways and Lufthansa Cargo have built a strong foundation over many years.”

Hiroyuki Homma, NCA’s president and chief executive, said: “Nippon Cargo Airlines leverages extensive experience in dedicated freighter operations”. He added: “We are fully committed to complementing the networks, aiming to provide customers with expanded capacity”.

Alain Chisari, head of SWISS WorldCargo, said: “Europe and Japan are both key markets for customers that rely on trustworthy, high-quality air cargo services”, according to STAT Times.

Read together, the quotes tell you who brings what. Lufthansa and SWISS bring the European network. ANA brings its Japanese network and passenger-plane bellies. NCA brings freighters. “Belly” capacity is cargo space under the floor of passenger flights. Freighters are all-cargo aircraft. They carry big, heavy and dangerous goods that bellies often cannot.

Why the first JV stopped

The first JV ended for ANA’s reasons, not the market’s. ANA suspended its cargo JVs with both Lufthansa Cargo and United Airlines at the end of September 2023, Air Cargo News reported at the time. The United JV had started in 2015. ANA said the move was “due to the future restructuring of our cargo business.”

ANA also played down the money. Its filings said: “The impact on our consolidated financial performance due to this contract suspension is insignificant.” That line matters. It suggests the old JV was useful but not large for ANA’s group results.

The restructuring ANA meant was the purchase of NCA from shipping group NYK. In October 2023, that deal had been pushed back to the following year, which NYK put down to the time competition authorities needed to review it, Air Cargo News reported. At that point NCA had eight in-service Boeing 747-8 freighters, according to Cirium fleet data cited in the same report.

ANA Holdings completed the takeover on 3 August 2025, FreightWaves reported in December 2025. FreightWaves put NCA’s fleet at eight 747-8 freighters and seven older 747-400s. Five of those 747-400s are leased to Atlas Air and two are flown by ASL Airlines. ANA’s own freighter fleet is six Boeing 767 freighters and two Boeing 777 freighters.

The scale gap is the point. A 747-8 freighter is a much larger aircraft than a 767 freighter. With NCA, ANA moved from a mid-size freighter operator to a heavy-lift one. The old JV was built around ANA’s smaller fleet. A new one would be built around NCA’s jumbos.

FreightWaves also reported that ANA Holdings expects its cargo reorganisation to be completed “by the end of March 2027.” NCA keeps its own air operator certificate, the licence to fly as an airline. A source told FreightWaves: “The customer will be able to access all the capacity operated by the combined network through one sales channel”.

That sentence explains why ANA reopened the door to Lufthansa now. Once ANA and NCA sell through one channel, it makes sense to sell alongside one European partner too.

A lane already under pressure

The timing fits the market. Air capacity between Asia and Europe has been squeezed for months.

WorldACD data, reported by STAT Times on 2 November, put the Asia Pacific–Europe spot rate at $5.10 per kg in week 43 (19 to 25 October). That was up 5% on the week before and nearly 30% on a year earlier. A spot rate is the price for one-off shipments, as opposed to contract rates agreed in advance.

Volumes are not driving that. Chargeable weight from Asia Pacific to the EU fell 16% year on year in the same data. Chargeable weight is the weight airlines bill on, which can be actual or by volume, whichever is higher. So prices rose while volumes fell. That points to a supply problem.

The same WorldACD figures show where supply went. Capacity in the Middle East and South Asia region in week 43 was 13% below late February. Arabian Gulf capacity was down 19% over the same period. STAT Times quoted WorldACD: “Riyadh almost completely closed to international flights during week 43”. Many Asia–Europe shipments normally connect through Gulf hubs. When that route thins out, direct flights and freighters between Asia and Europe matter more.

STAT Times gives no Japan-to-Europe rate on its own. But Japan is not immune. The same report shows Japan-to-US spot rates up 14% in a week and 59% on a year.

What it means for forwarders

If this becomes a JV, here is what changes for you.

One product, one allocation talk. Today you can book Lufthansa Cargo, SWISS WorldCargo, ANA and NCA separately on Japan–Europe. A JV would let them plan capacity and price together. You would deal with one sales approach on the lane instead of several. That is simpler, especially for multi-modal routings that mix belly and freighter space.

Less leverage. The flip side is fewer separate carriers to play off against each other in allocation talks. Allocations are blocks of space carriers promise to a forwarder for a season. If four sellers become one, the room to push rates down by switching carriers shrinks. Lanes where these four carry a large share of direct capacity will feel this most.

Better freighter access to Europe. NCA’s 747-8s can carry outsized and heavy loads. Linked to Lufthansa’s hubs at Frankfurt and SWISS’s network from Zurich, that could open more onward connections in Europe. In our view, automotive parts, machinery and semiconductor tools out of Japan stand to gain most.

More routing choice when Gulf hubs wobble. A direct Japan–Europe product with joint freighter and belly planning is a hedge against more Middle East disruption. If Gulf capacity stays down, that hedge is worth paying for.

None of this happens because of an MoU. Plan your 2026–27 winter allocations as if these are still four separate carriers. They are.

Our call

We think the JV comes back. The commercial logic is strong. ANA’s reorganisation is set to sell ANA and NCA capacity through one sales channel, according to a source quoted by FreightWaves. Lufthansa Cargo has said it wants to explore. Nobody signs a public four-way MoU after a three-year gap unless both sides already want the outcome.

But we think it comes back slowly. ANA’s own reorganisation runs to the end of March 2027. It is unlikely to sign a revenue-sharing deal with outsiders before its own house is in order. In our view, a JV will also need sign-off from competition authorities.

Our prediction: no joint Japan–Europe product or joint rate sheet for forwarders before April 2027. We expect a signed JV agreement in the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest. Joint selling to forwarders should follow from the IATA winter season starting late October 2027. If a joint product appears earlier than that, it will be a sign that Gulf capacity has stayed tight and the carriers are rushing to sell into it.

Sources

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