Cargolux’s pioneering years

The airline began operations in May 1970 with a single Canadair CL-44, swingtail freighter aircraft. In those days, the company had one crew and office staff of four in Luxembourg. The office facilities were located above a bank in the Avenue de la Liberté downtown Luxembourg and consisted of one large room. In the center of the room, there was a full size ping-pong table, which served as a desk for the staff, but when the aircraft was gone on long charter trips, it was converted to its original use: ping-pong.

The crews often departed for a destination in the early months of the company’s history with no return load booked. However, while the aircraft was on route, the sales team would phone all their contacts in order to find cargo – if not a return load, then one for another destination. This often gave the sales team many busy and sleepless nights and often kept the crews away from home for up to 20 days.

The first years were a challenge for the operations department. In those days, Cargolux did not have any traffic rights, thus the operation and the preparation for each flight was much more complicated. When preparing a flight the operations team always needed to request the traffic rights, overflying permits and landing rights according to the flight plan, such as the arrangements for the handling at the various en route stations. This meant a long preparation time for each flight.

In 1972, the offices in downtown Luxembourg were abandoned and Cargolux moved to the airport.