DHL’s hub shift to Leipzig/Halle Airport is official

The contract for the establishment at Leipzig/Halle Airport of the European airfreight hub to be operated by DHL was signed on September 21, 2005, marking the ratification of the agreement to relocate the DHL hub to Leipzig/Halle.

The conclusion of the contract will allow the Central German airport to become one of the most significant freight nodal points in Europe. From 2008, some fifty DHL freight aircraft will be using Leipzig/Halle as their hub base every day, in order for up to 2,000 tonnes of freight to be sorted and forwarded worldwide every night.

“We have concluded a good contract which will secure the growth of DHL and of the Airport, and which represents an important milestone on the way to Leipzig/Halle by DHL,” said managing director of DHL Hub Leipzig, Michael Reinboth. “This contract has established an important precondition towards the creation of the planned 3,500 jobs at DHL as the air freight hub.”

According to Volkmar Stein of the Board of Directors of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen, Leipzig/Halle Airport is not only competitive on a European scale, in future it will become one of the leaders in the freight business. “The trust which DHL and Deutsche Post, the German Post Office, as the world’s largest logistics operators, have placed in the Airport is the result of outstandingly professional work and powerful support from the shareholders of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG and the Airport shareholders alike,” he said.

Eric Malitzke, managing director of Flughafen Leipzig/Halle, said that winning DHL as a client of Leipzig/Halle Airport is the result of some two years of negotiations. “This success is proof of the development potential of the Airport and of the entire region for the logistics and air transport sectors, something unique on a national comparison in Germany, and recognised internationally.”