At the end of 2003, Kuehne & Nagel acquired an equity stake in Global Freight Exchange (GF-X), the leading neutral reservations system for the airfreight industry.

In addition, Kuehne & Nagel extended its commitment to use GF-X as its preferred reservations system for at least a further four years. Kuehne & Nagel will roll out usage of GF-X - and in particular the host-to-host booking functionality - across the whole of its global network.

Reinhard Lange, Chief Operating Officer International Forwarding of Kuehne & Nagel International AG, commented: "We have been a convinced supporter of GF-X since it first went live in October 2000. Our decision to intensify the cooperation is based on the excellent results achieved so far and our belief that the GF-X system is the best solution for electronic reservations for the air cargo industry."

Jean Godart, GF-X Chairman, said: "This latest move underlines Kuehne & Nagel's long-term view of GF-X and demonstrates the cooperative way we work with our clients to expand and develop the GF-X system for the airfreight industry as a whole."

GF-X (www.gf-x.com) is the leading reservations system for the airfreight industry. The GF-X system has been operational since October 2000. Current clients include ABX, Air France Cargo, American Airlines Cargo, BAX Global, bmi cargo, British Airways World Cargo, Capitol International, Cargolux Airlines, cargo-partner, Continental Airlines Cargo, Delta Air Logistics, DHL Danzas Air & Ocean, DHL Aviation NV, EGL Eagle Global Logistics, Emirates SkyCargo, Exel, Iberia Cargo, KLM Cargo, Kuehne & Nagel, LanChile Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, Panalpina, Royal Air Maroc, Schenker, SDV, Swiss WorldCargo, Target Logistic Services, UTi, Variglog and Yusen Air & Sea Service.

GF-X maintains information such as schedules, capacity and rates and interfaces with carrier systems to complete transactions. Bookings have been increasing steadily since GF-X went live to approximately 750,000 transactions per annum. Membership of GF-X is increasing rapidly with a total of 17 carriers and 25 forwarders signed up to the GF-X system. In January, GF-X achieved a record 1 million bookings since its launch.