Cargolux Italia

When a jumbo freighter with an LX registration comes over the threshold at Milan Malpensa, it is not automatically an aircraft from Luxembourg. Chances are you have one of the four Boeing 747-400Fs of Cargolux Italia in your viewfinder – an Italian cargo airline closely tied to Luxembourg’s Cargolux and yet a separate company with its own codes. Here you will learn how the airline is set up, how to tell its jumbos from the parent’s, and where to catch them.

Cargolux Italia at a glance

Cargolux Italia S.p.A. is a cargo-only airline from Italy based in Vizzola Ticino, a small municipality right at Milan Malpensa Airport. It was founded in December 2008 as a joint venture between Italian investors and Luxembourg’s Cargolux; the first flight took off in June 2009.

You often read about the “Italian subsidiary” of Cargolux. That is not quite accurate: according to the company, the Italian Italia Aerologistic Srl holds 60 percent of the shares and Cargolux Airlines International 40 percent. In everyday operations the link is still very close. Cargolux acts as the worldwide general sales agent, so it also sells the cargo capacity of the Italian sister, and in its public image – from the website to the livery – Cargolux Italia is clearly part of the Cargolux family.

With around 130 employees on the ground and in the air (according to the airline), Cargolux Italia is a comparatively small operation. The airline focuses on a few but long routes: from Malpensa the jumbos fly to Asia, according to the airline including Hong Kong, Tokyo Narita and Zhengzhou.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code C8: appears in the flight number, for example in the airport’s cargo flight schedule.
• ICAO code ICV: the operator code in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign CARGOLUX ITALIA: this is how the crew calls in on the radio.

This is the key difference from the parent: Cargolux itself flies as CV and CLX. So if you see a jumbo with an LX registration on the tracker, only the operator code tells you who is flying. Why there are two code systems at all is explained in the article IATA and ICAO codes explained; you will find the difference between flight number and callsign in Callsign vs. flight number: the difference.

The fleet: four Boeing 747-400Fs

Cargolux Italia relies on exactly one type: the Boeing 747-400F, the factory-built freighter version of the Boeing 747-400. According to the airline there are four aircraft, and each carries the name of an Alpine peak:

Registration	Name	Type	Spotter tip
LX-VCV	Monviso	Boeing 747-400F	Easily confused with the 747-8F series LX-VC…
LX-UCV	Tre Cime di Lavaredo	Boeing 747-400F	Named after the Three Peaks in the Dolomites
LX-WCV	Monte Cervino	Boeing 747-400F	Monte Cervino is the Italian name of the Matterhorn
LX-YCV	Monte Rosa	Boeing 747-400F	Named after the massif on the Swiss border

How much fits into a jumbo like this is shown by the figures Cargolux publishes for its 747-400F: the maximum payload is around 113 tonnes, the main deck offers a good 610 cubic meters of cargo space, and there are about 130 cubic meters more in the lower-deck holds. The aircraft is 70.7 meters long and has a wingspan of 64.4 meters. Especially handy is the nose door that hinges upward: through it, long and bulky goods can be pushed straight onto the main deck – one reason the 747 has stayed so popular with cargo airlines for so long.

No orders for new aircraft are known at Cargolux Italia. The parent Cargolux has ordered the Boeing 777-8F as the successor to its 747-400Fs. Whether and when any of those will be based in Milan has not been publicly decided. For spotters this means: the four jumbos with Alpine names belong to a generation of aircraft that is gradually disappearing from fleets. If you want them in your logbook, don’t wait too long.

A short history

The idea behind Cargolux Italia was to build a second base in the south of Europe alongside Luxembourg. Malpensa was an obvious choice: the airport is Italy’s most important cargo airport, sits in the middle of northern Italy’s industrial region and has runways that are more than long enough for heavy long-haul freighters. The company was formed at the end of 2008, and flight operations began in the summer of 2009.

If you look it up, route network overviews list not only the Asian destinations but also destinations in Africa, the Middle East and the Baltics, as well as routes that were discontinued long ago. That shows how strongly cargo networks follow demand: destinations come and go, and some are served only seasonally or on a charter basis. For your planning, the current schedule always counts, not an old list.

Why Malpensa as a base?

For a cargo airline, what matters most is where the freight comes from. Around Milan there are industry, fashion and machine-building companies, pharma and logistics firms that depend on fast connections to Asia. By cargo volume, Malpensa is Italy’s largest airport and has its own cargo area in Cargo City. On top of that there are two parallel runways of around 3.9 kilometers each – enough room even for heavily loaded long-haul freighters.

For spotters this has a pleasant side effect: Malpensa offers a colorful mix of freighters, long-haul widebodies and low-cost traffic. A day at the fence brings you not only a chance at Cargolux Italia but also at many other freighters from integrators and Gulf airlines. If you also want to visit the other Milan airports, you will find information on Milan Linate and Milan Bergamo – though you should not expect Cargolux Italia freighter jumbos there.

The division of labor with the parent is also interesting. Cargolux runs its large network from Luxembourg and connects Europe additionally by truck. Cargolux Italia complements this with its own flights directly from northern Italy. Because Cargolux sells the capacity of both airlines, both companies appear to customers as one joint offering – but in the cockpit and on the tracker they remain separate operators with their own codes.

How to recognize Cargolux Italia

The first step is easy: every Cargolux Italia aircraft is a Boeing 747-400F. Four engines, the hump of the upper deck and the sheer size make the type unmistakable. As a true freighter, the aircraft has no row of windows along the fuselage and a shortened upper deck. At the wingtips sit upturned winglets – which reliably separates it from the longer Boeing 747-8F, which has none.

The harder question is whether you are looking at a Cargolux or a Cargolux Italia. Both fly jumbos, both carry LX registrations, and the livery is closely modeled on the parent’s. Three features help:

• The registration: Cargolux Italia has only four – LX-VCV, LX-UCV, LX-WCV and LX-YCV. Once you know these four, you are on the safe side.
• The name: Instead of the city and place names like “City of Vianden” that many Cargolux jumbos carry, the Italian aircraft are named after Alpine peaks. If “Monte Rosa” or “Monviso” is on the fuselage, you have the right one.
• The tracker code: ICV instead of CLX. This helps above all when you cannot read the registration from a distance.

That an Italian airline flies with Luxembourg registrations is unusual – Italian aircraft normally carry an I- before the registration. How country prefixes work is explained in the article Aircraft country prefixes; the basics of registrations are in Understanding aircraft registrations.

Other 747 freighters show up in Europe with airlines such as Atlas Air, Kalitta Air or UPS Airlines. These aircraft have US registrations starting with N and can be clearly separated by livery and registration.

Spotting Cargolux Italia

The best place is clearly the home base, Milan Malpensa. This is where the jumbos take off and land after their Asia rotations, and at the airport’s Cargo City they stand for loading and unloading. Malpensa has no official observation deck; spotting happens at publicly accessible places outside the fence. During the day the runway direction in use is usually 35, with landings from the south; still, it is worth checking wind and active runway before every trip – how is explained in Understanding runway direction at airports.

A nice addition to a spotting day at Malpensa is the aviation museum Volandia right next to the airport. You can read more about the location on the page Volandia at Milan Malpensa Airport.

Outside Italy the chances are much lower. At the other end of the routes, for example at Hong Kong Airport or Tokyo Narita Airport, one of the four aircraft may cross your path – at Narita, for example, from the park Sakura no Yama. Because Cargolux and Cargolux Italia work closely together, an appearance at Luxembourg Airport is also conceivable; don’t count on it, though, and check the tracker first.

For the big four-engine jets it is worth checking the sun position so the light falls on the right side of the fuselage. And since the aircraft are only at the airport at certain times, comparing against the tracker saves you many fruitless hours at the fence.

Common mix-ups

• Taking every LX 747 for a Cargolux – four of them fly for Cargolux Italia; the code ICV decides.
• Taking LX-VCV for a 747-8F – it is a 747-400F with winglets.
• Taking Cargolux Italia for a wholly owned subsidiary – Cargolux holds 40 percent, the majority belongs to Italia Aerologistic.
• Confusing Cargolux Italia with Italian passenger airlines – ITA Airways and Neos fly passengers and carry I- registrations.
• Searching only for C8 – on the radio and in many tracker views the airline appears under the ICAO code ICV.

How rare a sighting really is and why four registrations make a rewarding collecting goal is covered in Collecting registrations. More about the jumbo in general is in The history of the Boeing 747.

Conclusion

Cargolux Italia is a small but rewarding target for cargo fans: four Boeing 747-400Fs, four registrations, four Alpine peaks on the fuselage. If you spot at Malpensa, you have good chances of catching all four over time. The trick is in the details – LX registrations, but ICV on the tracker and winglets instead of the smooth wingtips of the 747-8F. And because the 747-400F is a generation on its way out, it is better to visit sooner rather than later.