Budapest Airport (BUD) in Hungary has begun construction of its €32.6m dedicated freight centre to augment its cargo handling capacity and develop its role as a leading gateway in the Central Eastern European region.
The new facility, known as Cargo City, is part of the €160m BUD:2020 Development Programme at the airport.
Spanning 20,000m², the new cargo handling facility and the new dedicated B747-8F freighter stands will centralise cargo operations at the airport.
Additionally, the facility will help the airport meet increased air cargo volumes in the future.
Budapest Airport CEO Jost Lammers said: “Air cargo is of strategic importance to BUD, and Cargo City will ensure that we continue to provide our growing customer base with efficient, modern facilities so that they can thrive in our booming catchment area.”
The airport, which witnessed cargo volume development of 39% over two years, opened two state-of-the-art express facilities in 2017 with a total area of 16,000m².
Cargo volume has seen a further 15.5% increase in tonnage between January and August 2018 against the same period in 2017.
Budapest Airport executive director for property and cargo René Droese said: “Following on from our infrastructure developments for the integrator market, our aim is to provide the ideal environment for air cargo with our Cargo City project.
“With the start of AirBridgeCargo and Silk Way West Airlines services in 2018, we now have five freighter operators at BUD. Volumes from our existing full-freighter partners, such as Cargolux, Turkish Cargo, and Qatar Airways Cargo, are also increasing.
“The cargo connectivity of BUD is also continuously expanding via the new belly cargo services of LOT, American Airlines, and Qatar Airways, as well as Emirates, Air China, and Air Canada Rouge.”
Cargo City will become operational in the fourth quarter of next year.
