1973 - ‘You name it we fly it’

Cargolux adopted the slogan ‘you name it, we fly it’ and proceeded to demonstrate its ability to live up this phrase:

• A consignment of a 12 meter-long sections of street lampposts was delivered to Saudi Arabia, where they were to be used to illuminate the area around Mecca.
• One ’44 even flew an urgently required cargo of beer to Hong Kong after a public house there had run dry!

Aero Uruguay
in August 1977, Cargolux, together with a Uruguayan group and with the blessing of the Uruguayan Government, formed a new airline – Aero Uruguay to fly between South America and Europe.

Leasing & Subleasing
1978 saw the company branching out into a new type of activity, namely aircraft subleasing.
The idea of the concept was to offer aircraft to other airlines that, due to seasonal requirements, might need extra capacity on a short or medium term basis.

Hadj:
In 1978, Cargolux entered the Hadj services with DC-8s. The company continued this service until late 80s and operated Hadj operations for various customers, such as Kabo Ai, Iran Air and Air Afrique.

CHAMP

Lionair (Dec 1987)
In 1987, Luxair and Cargolux jointly formed Lionair, an airline with the purpose of performing passenger services on behalf of other carriers or tour operators.
Lionair operated two B747-100 passenger aircraft, registered LX-FCV and LX-GCV.

Antonov 124 charter:
In Sep 1990, Cargolux chartered an Antonov 124 from Air Foyle Ltd. for weekly flights from Luxembourg to Singapore and return, carrying consolidated general cargo.

Different airlifts:
1972 also saw the grape airlift from Nicosia in Cyprus to Luxembourg. For two weeks, three 44s made a minimum of two daily round trips, carrying 25 tons of green grapes. In Luxembourg, the grapes were immediately loaded onto a truck and forwarded to various European destinations, mainly the UK market.
Another regular shuttle service operated by Cargolux was the flights to Asmara in Eritrea. For several years, Cargolux operated three flights per week loaded with boxes of zucchinis, green pepper beans, green bell peppers, tomatoes and green chili peppers.