EgyptAir Cargo, a subsidiary of The EgyptAir, has extended its consultancy agreement with Lufthansa Consulting (LCG) by another 10 months.

The consultancy agreement, covers intensive support for the airfreight carrier in the fields of quality management, warehouse operations and commercial, said a Lufthansa statement.

Since 2006, the cargo carrier's entire organization and operations have been fundamentally assessed and the jointly elaborated performance improvement program has been successfully implemented. Now the same spirit of partnership will carry the project into its third phase.

A team of six Lufthansa Consulting experts has been on-site in Cairo since the beginning of February and continues to work also for this project phase, it said.

At present, the consultants are focusing on coaching the EgyptAir Cargo staff in applying the improved processes and in incorporating the improvements in their daily tasks.

This way EgyptAir Cargo will be able to optimize its work and sustainably enhance the company's overall performance, the statement added.

Numerous tangible results in various areas have been achieved during this long-standing and trustful co-operation including an improved setup of the entire organisation with clearly assigned responsibilities, an efficient sales group besides a professional customer relationship management, the LCG said.

In addition, the reviewed network and foundations for an enhanced fleet utilization, the setup of capable warehouse processes and the establishment of a KPI-based quality management system have evolved from the co-operation.

Another highlight of the co-operation agreement was IOSA certification received by EgyptAir Cargo in 2008.

Owing to the joint efforts, EgyptAir Cargo is heading towards full membership with Cargo 2000 in the near future, an industry-wide initiative, embracing forwarders, warehouse operators and cargo carriers that committed themselves to a regular reporting of individual milestones to accomplish consistent and pursuable quality standards spanning the entire value chain.

The collaboration is also of high strategic significance, particularly at government level, as the upturn of EgyptAir Cargo is embedded in Egypt’s National Aviation Strategy, which aims at developing the country as an important hub between Asia, Africa and Europe.

It goes in line with other ambitious projects such as the construction of a contemporary passenger terminal and state-of-the-art cargo facilities at Cairo Airport as well as EgyptAir's membership of the world's largest airline network, Star Alliance, the statement added.-TradeArabia News Service