An Ilyushin IL 76TD-90VD cargo plane operated by Volga-Dnepr took off from Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ) heading for Ashgabat in Turkmenistan today. It was carrying 35 tonnes of vaccines, which are being transported on behalf of a UN organisation.
“As Europe’s fourth-largest air freight hub, Leipzig/Halle Airport is playing an increasingly important role in transhipping medical relief aid and temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals. We want to further enhance this function and therefore agreed on a cooperation arrangement with our partner, the Volga-Dnepr Group, this year too,” says Mario Patyk, Head of Business Development Cargo/Logistics.
Thanks to the fact that its subsidiary PortGround has CEIV Pharma certification, Leip- zig/Halle Airport is able to handle time-critical and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical shipments round the clock. The subsidiary of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG, which specialises in handling aircraft and freight, was also responsible for handling and loading the vaccines.
The Volga-Dnepr Group and the airport signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen the humanitarian hub at Leipzig Halle at the beginning of 2021. Two re- lief aid flights already took off from Leipzig/Halle heading for Windhoek in Namibia in August. The Antonov 124 aircraft was carrying urgently needed medical relief aid, including masks and ventilators, for the country that has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, the aid consignment funded by the German government consisted of more than 600 pallets, which were flown to southern Africa by the Russian airline, Volga-Dnepr.
LEJ – the hub for express and e-commerce shipments, freight charter flights, large animals and medical relief aid
Companies based at the airport can handle all kinds of air freight and cargo planes. The airport also has CEIV Pharma certification and is able to handle temperature-sensitive and time-critical pharmaceutical shipments like vaccines round the clock. The airport is acting as a transhipment centre for medical relief supplies and protective equipment in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. It has therefore regularly handled freight charter flights during the last few months – in addition to regular traffic – and, among other things, they have transported millions of Covid-19 tests.
The airport is DHL’s largest hub anywhere in the world and is the first regional air freight centre for Amazon Air in Europe. This means that the airport is one of the most important hubs for express and e-commerce consignments.
Overall, more than 80 cargo airlines fly to the airport and serve a network of routes, which covers more than 270 destinations around the world. The airport registers as many as 1,300 take-offs and landings for freight traffic every week.
More than 10,800 people are employed at Leipzig/Halle Airport or at companies and public authorities based there. This figure includes about 8,200 working in the freight handling, cargo airlines, logistics and freight forwarding sectors alone.
