Lufthansa Cargo shifted its Mumbai freighter operations to Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMI) on 12 October, ending freighter flights at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) as it gears up for a winter schedule that will field 88 freighter routes to 40 destinations worldwide.

The relocation, effective from mid-October, ties into infrastructure upgrades and airport capacity plans at the new gateway, according to the carrier. It also gives forwarders a second concrete change in India within weeks: SWISS WorldCargo will add Bangalore to its network via Zurich, opening another European connection for cargo customers in southern India.

What does the winter schedule change?

The new programme starts on 25 October and leans heavily on Asia-Pacific and North America growth. Lufthansa Cargo will operate up to 46 weekly freighter rotations to 17 Asia-Pacific destinations — the single largest regional block in the network.

Key lane-level moves include:

• Singapore added as a stop on the existing Frankfurt–Taipei rotation, opening new intra-Asia cargo options
• Frankfurt–Ho Chi Minh City–Shanghai–Los Angeles trans-Pacific service maintained at two flights per week
• Frankfurt–Taipei and Frankfurt–Chengdu continuing at three weekly frequencies each
• Almaty–Frankfurt services resuming

For shippers moving fashion, electronics and e-commerce freight between Europe and Southeast Asia, the Singapore insertion effectively creates a new triangular option on a lane that previously ran point-to-point between Frankfurt and Taipei.

How does North America capacity shift?

US frequencies rise across three gateways. New York JFK goes to five weekly freighter services, Dallas/Fort Worth to four, and Houston to three. The increases point Lufthansa Cargo at the trans-Atlantic westbound and US export markets, where oil-and-gas and industrial freight out of Texas remains a freighter mainstay.

South America stays flat: four weekly connections serving four destinations, unchanged from the current programme.

What happens in Europe and the wider group?

Within Europe, three cities — Larnaca, Istanbul and Stavanger — move from short-term, ad-hoc operations into the permanent schedule, flown with Boeing 777 freighters. The promotion of these stations from seasonal to scheduled gives forwarders fixed capacity rather than spot availability.

Belly capacity grows in parallel. Lufthansa Airlines will launch five weekly passenger flights to Kuala Lumpur, while ITA Airways adds two weekly services to Santo Domingo from November.

The wider Lufthansa Group network continues to give cargo customers access to roughly 7,500 flights serving 350 destinations across six European hubs — a scale that no standalone freighter operator in Europe can match.

What about the A321 freighter gap?

Lufthansa Cargo confirmed that destinations previously served by its A321F aircraft will remain reachable through long-haul freighter services or the group's passenger network until a new operator is found for the four aircraft. In practice, that means no immediate destination losses for shippers, though capacity on shorter A321F lanes may run tighter until a replacement operator is secured.

Taken together, the winter programme signals capacity growth on exactly the lanes where freighter demand has held firm — Asia-Pacific manufacturing origins and US industrial gateways — while the Navi Mumbai switch positions the carrier for the capacity expansion planned at India's newest cargo hub.