Tag: Germany

With express courier giant DHL moving its operations from Cologne-Bonn airport to its newly-created Central European hub at Leipzig-Halle airport and Lufthansa Cargo deciding to move all freighter flights from Cologne-Bonn to Leipzig-Halle from October 28, the East German airport is aggressively courting other airlines by pitching itself as the gateway to Eastern Europe and an airport with no restrictions on night flights.

Anticipating a rise in traffic, Eric Malitzke, managing director of the Leipzig-Halle Airport, told that the airport was taking a number of steps to upgrade its existing infrastructure. On July 5, its second runway, a parallel additional runway, went into operation. Leipzig-Halle invested some USD 380 million in the second runway and has earmarked USD 1.3 billion for other infrastructure projects.

DHL invested over USD 400 million to set up a Central European hub in Leipzig-Halle and convert its hubs at Cologne-Bonn and Brussels airports into gateways after a heated debate with the Belgium government over night flights. DHL wanted to expand its operations at Brussels and consequently increase night flights but abandoned its plans after strong opposition from people living in the area over noise concerns. DHL is still continuing operations at the two airports but has downgraded their status to gateways rather than European hubs.

DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo have been jointly operating a route network between Europe, Asia and the US since March 2004 with their Aerologic Intercontinental joint venture, touted as the biggest operative partnership between a cargo carrier and an express and courier company.