The two companies that will succeed LuxairCargo in running the ground handling cargo business at Luxembourg’s Findel airport are a Cargolux subsidiary called Luxcargo Handling and a Greek company called Goldair Handling. Photo: Shutterstock

The two companies that will succeed LuxairCargo in running the ground handling cargo business at Luxembourg’s Findel airport are a Cargolux subsidiary called Luxcargo Handling and a Greek company called Goldair Handling. Photo: Shutterstock

The minister for mobility and public works, Yuriko Backes, has awarded two cargo ground handling licences for Findel airport. Luxair can now officially sell its cargo handling business to Luxcargo Handling, a unit of Cargolux, and the Greek company Goldair Handling.

The fate of cargo handling at Findel has been decided. The minister for mobility and public works, , awarded two cargo ground handling licences to Luxcargo Handling, a subsidiary of Cargolux, and to the Greek company Goldair Handling on Tuesday. These licences were awarded “on the basis of a proposal from the Lux-Airport management body and after consultation with the airport users’ committee”, the ministry stated in its press release. This was the set for Luxair, which has held these two licences, to be able to sell its cargo handling business.

In September, Lux-Airport stipulated that “the new licence holder will have to start operations at Findel on 1 January 2024”. There will be two operatorts. Firstly, Luxcargo Handling, to which a transfer of activity was recorded in the commercial register on 29 August, which stated: “With effect from 31 December 2023, subject to the award of a licence to Luxcargo Handling”. The company’s Trade and Companies Register (RCS) file shows a change on 4 December, namely the publication of the proposed transfer. The document stated that the transfer of business concerns all branches of activity, including stocks and raw materials, customer and supplier contracts and agreements, as well as all employment contracts. Although the document does not specify the number of employment contracts in question, 1,200 employees were affected in September.

The second licence has been awarded to Goldair Handling, a company in the Goldair group founded “was founded in 1955 with main activity the commercial representation (GSA) of foreign airlines in Greece.” The company has already been operating its own 24-hour cargo terminal at Athens International Airport since it opened in 2001. It is also active in Bulgaria and Cyprus.

Trade unions were quick to react to the announcement. The OGBL and the LCGB published a press release on 6 December announcing “a major conflict at Luxair’s Cargocenter”. They point to an “untenable” situation for the 1,200 Luxair employees involved. The staff are due to be transferred to the new Luxcargo Handling company. “The staff concerned need stability and clear answers to their concerns”.

The unions reiterated their request for a meeting with Backes and asked her “to do everything possible to facilitate negotiations with the companies concerned as quickly as possible in order to safeguard the gains” of the employees, failing which a major conflict would be “inevitable”.

Originally published in French by and translated for Delano

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