Leipzig/Halle Airport is increasingly emerging as a freight hub for east-west traffic. The new air cargo route operated by AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) to Moscow is further evidence of this; representatives of Leipzig/Halle Airport provided the information after a meeting with their counterparts from ABC in the Russian capital. The mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung, was also present on this occasion. ABC is Russia’s largest provider of scheduled cargo flights. The company, which is part of the Volga-Dnepr Group, will now operate a flight on the Leipzig/Halle – Moscow Sheremetyevo route every week on Tuesdays.
“Leipzig/Halle Airport is increasingly developing into a gateway to European markets for Russian companies, but it is also a consolidation point for air cargo heading to Russia,” Markus Kopp, CEO of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG, underlined. “Flights operated by ABC for the Winter Olympics in Sochi were one of the most recent examples of this.” Kopp added, “The Russia air-freight industry has invested a great deal at the Leipzig/Halle site during the past few years and this has now opened a new chapter in cooperation in the fields of air cargo and aircraft maintenance. The policy of integrated value creation, which the airport has consistently pursued during the last few years, is now bearing fruit.” The airport has also had a scheduled passenger service linking Leipzig/Halle with Moscow’s Domodedovo airport twice a week since December last year.
The mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung, welcomed the new scheduled cargo service as clear evidence of the economic recovery in the region. “Leipzig/Halle Airport is a bridge for flows of goods to and from Europe. This new route enables us to strengthen the airport and Germany as an export nation in the long term,” Jung said.
The new scheduled service to Leipzig/Halle is critically important for Denis Ilyin, Executive President of ABC. “This adds an important route to the ABC cargo hub in Moscow, which already serves strategically important destinations in Russia, Europe, Asia and the USA. ABC currently operates twelve Boeing 747 cargo planes (four Boeing 747-400 ERF, three Boeing 747-400F and five new Boeing 747-8F). With an average age of just under four years, the cargo aircraft fleet is one of the youngest in the world.
Leipzig/Halle Airport has efficient infrastructure. A Volga-Dnepr Technics GmbH hangar opened at the airport in January 2013 and it has total working space measuring 8,500 square metres. The company not only uses it to service Ilyushin IL-76TD and Boeing 747 aircraft; it is also the only site in Europe with the capacity to maintain Antonov AN-124 planes. They are the largest cargo aircraft to have gone into series production. They are capable of transporting up to 150 tonnes of freight.
Source / Author: Leipzig/Halle Airport
Photo: Leipzig/Halle Airport