Air cargo through Europe's major hubs still short of pre-pandemic levels
Air cargo throughput at some of Europe’s biggest hubs continues to fall well short of ...
PRESS RELEASE
Freight volumes at Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ) are continuing to grow at double-digit rates. Europe’s fifth-largest cargo airport, LEJ, set a new record for air freight volumes in October. Related to the same month in the previous year, freight volumes increased by 10.9% to a figure of 124,881 tonnes. The number of cargo flights increased by 8.7% to 4,501 compared to October in the previous year.
This means that air cargo volumes grew by 8.4% to more than 1.11 million tonnes during the first ten months of the year. As a result, air cargo volumes at LEJ are growing far above the average figures and in contrast to the negative trend elsewhere in Germany.
LEJ: Amazon Air
Amazon Air opened its first regional air cargo centre in Europe at LEJ at the beginning of November. The company is using a newly constructed freight facility measuring 20,000 square metres with direct access to the apron area.
LEJ: Prepared to handle vaccines
LEJ offers its customers CEIV Pharma certification. The airport is able to handle temperature- and time-critical pharmaceutical shipments like vaccines round the clock. PortGround GmbH is responsible for this. It is a subsidiary of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG and specialises in handling aircraft and cargo. The airport’s refrigerated warehouse is located in the World Cargo Center (WCC). It has direct access to the apron area. This guarantees short transport routes and stable refrigerated chains to and from aircraft and trucks.
LEJ: the DHL hub
DHL Express operates its largest hub anywhere in the world at LEJ. As many as 2,000 tonnes of goods are handled here every day. LEJ is also the home base airport for AeroLogic, a joint venture involving DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo.
The airport launched a revised planning procedure involving funds worth about EUR 300 million this year. The airport submitted the documents necessary for this to the responsible planning authority, the Saxon regional directorate, in August. These plans envisage enlarging the apron areas in the DHL hub zone in order to create additional parking spaces for aircraft.
LEJ: Cargo-friendly airport
With as many as 1,000 cargo flights a week, the air freight hub at Leipzig/Halle guarantees reliable logistics and supply chains for flows of goods within Europe and around the globe. The airport also offers multimodal transport connections. LEJ has direct links to the trans-European motorway and railway networks in both a north-south and east-west direction. Among other things, this enables trucks to reach 15 European countries from LEJ within eight hours.
The airport handles the complete portfolio of products along supply chains for freight forwarders, charter brokers and airlines 24/7. All kinds of air cargo and freight planes can be handled at LEJ 365 days a year round the clock. This not only includes general and outsize cargo, but also pharmaceuticals and e-commerce shipments as well as large live animals and consignments of hazardous goods.
Overall, about 60 cargo airlines fly to the airport and serve a network of routes that involves more than 280 destinations around the world. Freight volumes at Leipzig/Halle Airport amounted to approx. 1.24 million tonnes in 2019.
About Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG
Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG has three subsidiaries: Leipzig/Halle Airport, Dresden Airport and PortGround.
Leipzig/Halle Airport handled about 2.62 million passengers and approx. 1.24 million tonnes of air freight during 2019. This makes it Germany’s second-largest cargo airport. The airport is connected to the A9 and A14 motorways and has a railway station that forms an integral part of the central terminal. This ensures that passengers from Central Germany and beyond can reach the airport directly.
Dresden Airport handled about 1.6 million passengers in 2019. A link to the A4 motorway and a local railway station in the terminal ensure that passengers from the catchment areas in Saxony, the south of Brandenburg, the north of the Czech Republic and western Poland can reach the airport and leave it again in comfort.
PortGround offers ground, freight and other extensive services at Leipzig/Halle and Dresden Airports round the clock.
The two airports belonging to Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG registered 107,563 aircraft movements and handled about 4.22 million passengers in 2019.
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