Kuehne + Nagel will soon join the Budapest air cargo community after deciding to lease both warehouse and office space at the Hungarian gateway.
The freight forwarding heavyweight will join the community on 1 July 2018, when the airport operator will lease a significant area of warehouse and adjacent office space.
Budapest Airport continues to grow its cargo business and last summer, two major logistics bases were handed over to two integrators (DHL Express and TNT Express) near Terminal 1 and this summer construction of a dedicated Cargo City will commence, with handover planned in the summer of 2019.
As an integral part of the BUD 2020 five-year airport development plan of more than €160 million euros, Budapest Airport will further invest in developing its cargo business.
The airport says with more and more capacity restraints curbing the development of cargo business in most Western European airports, Budapest has all “favourable conditions for the dynamic growth” of both traditional cargo flights (like Cargolux, Turkish Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo and Silkway) and also belly cargo operations.
The latter are boosted by four more different transatlantic flights this summer, connecting New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Toronto to Budapest and offering around 10 tonnes of cargo capacity on each flight.
The Kuehne + Nagel air freight division in Hungary will closely monitor developments at Budapest Airport, having a widespread operational basis for special or high-value cargo shipments of goods, like pharmaceutical products and other items.
Budapest Airport director of property and cargo, René Droese said: “We warmly welcome our partners in the forwarding business, joining our Cargo City community; I believe that this first warehouse and office space lease agreement is just the beginning of a long relationship between Budapest Airport and Kuehne + Nagel.”
He added: “I look on forwarder companies as our closest strategic partners in developing our cargo route network. Jointly, we can bring the right cargo airlines with the right capacity and flight frequency to Budapest.
“We can also develop further our logistics capacities according to the needs of our partners, based on the latest technological developments. Being close to cargo operations is not only a question of convenience, but also an important factor in keeping costs under strict control.”
Kuehne + Nagel Hungary air freight manager, László Szabó said: “As the leading air freight forwarder in Hungary, we are aiming to find the best solutions, in order to continuously maintain our existing high level of service.”
He added: “We believe that keeping our fingers on the pulse of our customers’ business helps us to react rapidly and meet all of their expectations, for example, new direct overseas services to Philadelphia, Chicago or New York. This is why we are excited to partner with Budapest Airport.”
