Corporate training constitutes the second major pillar in Cargolux’s training activities, next to Flight Training. Training at Cargolux covers two areas:

a) Mandatory courses for all staff, e.g.: for pilots and mechanics to maintain and/or upgrade their license. This also covers training on new equipment, new technologies or the application of new procedures. This type of training is a legal requirement.

b) Various types of training for staff that allows them to acquire new skills and develop their areas of competence and expertise. This type of training extends beyond legal requirements and constitutes a voluntary action on behalf of Cargolux.

Owing to the many regulations and high standards within the aviation industry, Cargolux follows a well- established training philosophy that has made training and development one of the company’s greatest strengths. Cargolux offers a great variety of voluntary personal development courses beyond regulatory and mandatory training. The company strives to foster a culture for continuous education and development, teaching and learning – both in its headquarters and its stations all over the world.

All employees have access to a variety of soft skills training such as presentation skills and project management basics; courses that have proven to be very popular among the staff. The company also offers more complex programs dedicated to leadership and management, including the team leader program and the management development program. During 2016, Cargolux delivered an average of 64 hours of training per employee.

Cargolux is interested in knowing its people – what motivates them, what makes them unique and how the fit between the organization and individual career aspiration can be optimized. The company knows that only when people are happy at what they do, they will be able to utilize their full potential and perform at their best. In this way, training and development supports business continuity and increases individual job satisfaction.

Continuous development and transparent feedback improves competencies and performance, individually and as team. To support employees in this matter, Cargolux has designed an appraisal system for em­ployees with managerial function, based on reviewing main tasks and responsibilities, setting objectives, analyzing competencies and creating an individual career development plan. The system was rolled out to the airline’s global stations in early 2016.

In order to guarantee business continuity and matching organizational needs with individual career development, Cargolux has launched a project implementing a structured succession planning framework. To ensure undisrupted operations and to safeguard internal expert knowledge, Cargolux also works on implementing a global process that will enable the company to better recognize, develop and retain its talents.

Following regulatory changes and new requirements set forth by EASA, Cargolux, in 2016, restructured its crew training organization and created the Cargolux Flight Academy. The new organization was set up as a profit center that not only fulfills the pilot training requirements of the Cargolux Group, but also markets crew training capacity to third-party customers.

In contrast to other providers who mainly employ retired pilots, Cargolux’s trainers are active line pilots with an average of 15,000 flight hours and way over 20 years of 747 experience at Cargolux under their belt. In addition, as cargo pilots, Cargolux trainers are well versed in operating to demanding and difficult airfields in remote or less than ideal locations that passenger airlines usually don’t fly to.

When launch customer Cargolux introduced the Boeing 747-8F, it also introduced the world’s first 747-8F simulator and has since converted it to Level D status, the highest possible qualification. Cargolux, today, employs one of only four advanced 747-8 training units worldwide. Both Cargolux simulators, the 747-400F and 747-8F, are equipped with state-of-the-art visuals.

Together, both simulators recorded a utilization of 61%, or 10,490:16 hours in 2016. Of these, 6,480 hours were flown by Cargolux crews and 3,511 hours by external customer crews, including Cargolux Italia. Based on a 24-hour cycle, the 747-400 simulator was utilized for 67% of the time while the B747-8 Simulator had a slightly lower utilization rate of 56%.

In cooperation with Boeing and EASA, the Cargolux Flight Academy conducted the very first transition courses from the 747-400 to the 747-8; this led to an approved footprint for all such courses at other suppliers.

During 2016, 62 pilots went through the Flight Academy’s Course A, 56 of those were Cargolux pilots. ­
In addition, 1 pilot went through Course C while 26 passed through a Command Course during their promotion to Captain.

The airline’s Flight Academy is the only approved training organization worldwide to offer 747 line training to third-party pilots. It also markets the capacity of Luxair’s new cabin training simulator to third parties.

In late 2015, Cargolux introduced the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) flight time limitation rules (FTL) ahead of its February 2016 deadline.
After its first full year in operation, the EASA FTL has proven to be a valid and important tool that, for the first time ever, not only looks at scheduled work hours but also takes into account the individual body clock of pilots.

Cargolux has defined near and long term goals that follow IATA’s targets for airlines to reduce CO₂ emissions with the aim to eventually achieve carbon-neutral growth.

Cargolux commits to

• an average improvement in fuel efficiency of 1.5% per year until 2020;

• a cap on aviation CO₂ emissions from 2020, in effect carbon neutral growth;

• a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 50% by 2050, relative to 2005 levels.

On its way to achieving these goals, Cargolux has made significant investments. The airline, in 2016, concluded its fleet rollover program with the delivery of its 14^th and final 747-8 freighter. In 2005, the company became Boeing’s launch customer for this aircraft type that was consequently developed with the input of Cargolux. The 747-8F, together with the 747-400F that Cargolux operates, allow the airline to lower the fuel consumption of its fleet, thus effectively reducing CO₂ emissions.

Not ending here, Cargolux has initiated its Fuel Efficiency Round Table with encouraging results. In 2016, the initiative saved over US$ 1 million in fuel costs at Flight Operations alone. This translates to 2,031 tons of fuel that were saved in airline operation, which also reduced the fleet’s CO₂ emission by 6,398 tons.

The savings became possible through operational measures such as different flap settings, lower APU usage or three-engine taxiing after landing. Other measures, such as the introduction of the electronic flight bag, helped to reduce weight by eliminating paper maps and introducing electronic maps in the cockpit. Initiatives in other departments complement the savings at Flight Operations. During 2016, the Fuel Efficiency Round Table implemented 13 fuel saving initiatives for Cargolux, 2 of those are now part of the company’s standard procedures while 11 initiatives are still running as such. Initiatives in other departments include APU usage and weight reductions at Ground Operations and Maintenance, the latter also introduced calendar-based engine washing on the 747-8F. Finally, Flight Operations Support initiated an opti­mized random routing, fair weather alternatives and statistical taxi fuel.

In 2016, the Fuel Efficiency Round Table achieved 97% of its targets for Flight Operations.

The Fuel Efficiency Round Table is a perfect example of cross-divisional projects within Cargolux. Even though it is a Flight Operations Initiative, many other departments contributed to its success. Maintenance, Engineering, Ground Operations, Network and Crew Training – everyone involved in the Fuel Efficiency Round Table is an expert in their field and promotes the project in their division and department. The initiative offers more potential savings for the company that directly translate to a lower environmental impact. It could reduce fuel burn based on block hour by another 0.5%, which means that 240 kgs of fuel can be saved on each Cargolux flight.

In total, the airline targets to reduce its fuel consumption at Flight Operations by 1,700 tons and company-wide by 3,800 tons in 2017.

Access to high-quality data is crucial when improving fuel efficiency. In order to achieve this, Cargolux has invested in Honeywell’s GoDirect software, formerly known as Aviaso. It is a technologically advanced fuel efficiency software that simplifies data gathering, analysis and reporting, helps identifying additional fuel savings and monitors the progress of existing fuel savings initiatives.

Cargolux Group Fleet Fuel Consumption:

• Jet A Fuel: 1,189,381.62 tons

GSE vehicles:

• Lead-free fuel: 3,210 liters

• Diesel: 20,851 liters

• Diesel / industrial machines: 74,482 liters

In June 2016, the company’s environmental efforts were validated as Cargolux, true to its pioneering spirit, became the first airline worldwide to be honored with the Lean & Green award. The airline was recognized for its commitment to improve its carbon efficiency by 10% within five years.

Lean & Green was started in 2008 as an initiative of the Dutch Ministry for Infrastructure and Environment to reduce the carbon footprints of companies. Today, Lean & Green Europe is Europe’s leading community for sustainable logistics. Lean & Green Europe combines corporate responsibility for reducing footprints with continuous improvement of operational performance and value for customers.

Until recently, logistics was perceived as a low-skill industry associated with a history of emissions and noise pollution. Due to the rapid introduction of green technologies, advanced automation, software systems and high tech advances in warehousing and tracking systems, as well as more collaboration in the supply chain, this perception is now outdated. Lean & Green Europe, with its award, recognized that Cargolux successfully faced the challenge of finding a healthy balance between environmental and economic concerns. The airline’s customers and logistics partners, the major forwarders of this world, are well aware of the Lean & Green program and appreciate Cargolux’s efforts. Being Lean & Green certainly gives Cargolux a competitive advantage and underlines its commitment to always deliver the highest service excellence.

The company continues a range of programs that support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions for its fleet of aircraft. These include:

• Deep core engine washing. This is performed on the GEnx-2B, CF6-80C2B5F and selected RB211-524H2-T engines with low N3 speed margin. Engines are washed at an interval of 500 cycles or about twice a year.

• PIP – performance improvement package retrofitted to the GEnx engines of the airline’s early 747-8Fs.
  In 2016, four engines went through the PIP upgrade, it is planned to upgrade another 10 engines in 2017.

• Optimization of APU usage when no ground power supply is available.

Cargolux holds ISO 14001 certifications for its Luxembourg hub, its Maintenance & Engineering Division, its Flight Operations and Training Division as well as its Global Logistics Division.

Scope 1

The airline group can show exemplary greenhouse gas emission intensity for its fleet of aircraft. Based on 11.3 million ATKs (available ton kilometers) for the Cargolux and Cargolux Italia fleets, the CO₂ efficiency reached 0.331 kgs CO₂ per ATK.

Scope 2

Cargolux offices and facilities recorded a CO₂ emission of 2,235 tonnes for fuel and gas heating during 2016.
Use of electricity emitted no CO₂.

Cargolux complies with the EU-ETS reporting require­ments and continues to monitor and report the CO₂ emissions.

Third-party trucking fleet operating for Cargolux in Europe

World trade, global economics, human healthcare and a decent standard of living rely on sustainable air freight transport. Cargolux firmly believes that achieving this goal requires the collaboration of all partners in the transport chain as well as aircraft and engine manufacturers and governments.

At the same time, Cargolux is aware that its activities affect the communities around the airports it operates from and strives to minimize the impact of these activities as much as possible.

The emission of noise is therefore an important area of environmental concern for the company, especially at the airline’s home base in Luxembourg where most of its aircraft movements take place.

Operating the world’s quietest freighter aircraft in its class, both the Boeing 747-400F and the 747-8F, represents a significant measurable improvement for the surrounding communities. Introducing the 747-8F in particular, with its advanced engine technology and new wing design, reduced the 85db take-off noise footprint around airports by another 30%.
Both aircraft types in the Cargolux fleet fully comply with the standards of ICAO chapter 4, the most stringent aviation standard.

Additionally, over the past years, the company studied and implemented a number of operating procedures to further reduce community noise with its existing fleet.

These include a ‘Constant Descend Approach, developed in coordination with the DAC, that reduces noise disturbances over the approach sector to Luxembourg airport by following a continuous descend path all the way down to runway level. It minimizes the thrust required for the approach, as engines do not have to be spooled up for renewed level flight in a stepped approach.

Revised flap settings during the approach also reduces the amount of thrust engines have to deliver for landing. Landings in Luxembourg are limited to idle reverse thrust to reduce noise levels.

After landing, Cargolux aircraft shut down one of the four engines for three-engine taxying to the parking position to conserve fuel and lower the noise level.

The aircraft’s auxiliary power unit (APU) is not used for arrivals in Luxembourg to reduce the noise on the ramp. Instead of the APU, a ground power unit is used to supply electricity to the aircraft.

The airline is also studying a quiet climb procedure after take-off from Luxembourg airport that incorpo­rates a climb to a certain level before reducing engine thrust while overflying noise-sensitive areas.
At a given height, thrust is then restored to climb thrust. This procedure would be applicable to the company’s new fleet of 747-8 freighters.

Cargolux runs a waste management system that enables the company to better control and segregate the waste it generates in Luxembourg. This system is operated by a spe­cialized external company, managing and monitoring the correct collection, segregation and disposal of all categories of waste, including recyclables and hazardous waste.

Recycling is an important factor in the company’s waste management system. All facilities and rented offices in Luxembourg are equipped with a waste-sorting and recycling system. Wastewater from the airline’s maintenance operations and maintenance facilities in Luxembourg are directly collected by the airport sewage system followed by a wastewater treatment plant.

In addition, the company encourages its office staff to adopt measures that cut down on waste production, including the use of electronic storage for documents, electronic communication methods or greater use of recycled paper.

During 2016, the amount of recyclable waste grew by 23.03% while oily waste and residual waste declined by 8.12% and 6.20% respectively. The growth in hazardous waste was due to an unscheduled cleaning of one oil separator that resulted in the disposal of large quantities of oil contaminated water.

The overall amount of waste produced by Cargolux in 2016 went up by 14.63%. The growth in waste was driven by increased maintenance activities due to the higher fleet utilization, especially during the peak season, as well as the disposal of accumulated wood and steel waste at the maintenance center. The higher-than-before aircraft utilization also resulted in the disposal of more end-of-life tires than in the previous year.

The company handles oil-contaminated waste with an innovative oil absorber product as well as waste compactors that have the added benefit of reducing transportation costs and emissions that would otherwise result from the waste disposal process. The Cargolux Maintenance Center recorded no spills during the year while only one spill was recorded at the Cargo Center’s tarmac.

Cargolux’s waste management system holds the ‘Superdreckskescht fir Betriber’ environmental label. The next audit to retain this label will take place during 2017.