The US logistics services provider Expeditors has won Lufthansa Cargo's Planet Award of Excellence. The cargo airline presented the award to Expeditors in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the companies' global cooperation during the previous year. The award ceremony took place at this year's Global Partner Council in Riga, Latvia. Lufthansa Cargo's selection took account not only of transported tonnage figures but also focused, above all, on the promotion of innovative distribution channels and the increasing digitisation of air freight processes in the interaction between the two companies.

We are proud that Expeditors has been part of Lufthansa Cargo's Global Partnership Programme since 2007. Since then, the two companies have ensured a sustainable development of transported air cargo, which is further evidence of the good partnership and strong and enduring loyalty between the two companies, said Peter Gerber, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo.

Together with Dr Andreas Otto, Board Member Product and Sales of Lufthansa Cargo, Peter Gerber presented the award to Jeffrey S. Musser, CEO Expeditors International, as well as José Ubeda, Senior Vice President Air Cargo Expeditors International. We are delighted to have reinforced the utilisation of innovative booking channels together with Expeditors last year, which enables us to focus more on paperless and sustainable eChannels, pointed out Dr Otto. This again proves that Lufthansa Cargo can establish innovations on the air cargo market in cooperation with strong partners from the Global Partnership Programme while driving key industry topics such as the automation of business processes.

Jeffrey S. Musser emphasised: We wish to thank one of our most important business partners for conferring on us such a prestigious award. With Lufthansa Cargo we have a strong partner at our side, who guarantees us a first-class service and global network. José Ubeda added: Thanks to the cooperation with one of the world's best cargo airlines we have been able to benefit from synergies and generate a unique added value for our end customers.

The Lufthansa Cargo Global Partnership Programme is an important platform for sustainable growth. Apart from Expeditors, the eleven Global Partners include Agility, CEVA, DACHSER, DB Schenker, DHL Global Forwarding, Hellmann, Kühne+Nagel, Panalpina, UPS and UTi. Together, they account for around half of Lufthansa Cargo's sales. The Global Partner Council is a meeting of top-level managers of the world's leading forwarding companies with the executive board and top management of Lufthansa Cargo.