Budapest Airport’s cargo volumes have grown almost 23 per cent annually, transporting goods as varied as aircraft jet engines, a baby hippopotamus and several hundred calves.
The airport serving Hungary’s capital handled over 112,000 tonnes of cargo in 2016, and on certain days would have three Boeing 747 Freighters parked on the apron.
It says on 20 December several hundred calves were flown to Israel on an El Al Airlines Cargo 747 and jet engines were flown to Chicago on board an AirBridgeCargo Airlines 747 at the same time, along with Air Atlantic and Sky Lease Cargo jumbos.
One of the more interesting shipments was a baby female hippopotamus travelling to Jakarta, Indonesia via Dubai in the bellyhold of an Emirates Boeing 777-200 inside a standard size waterproof cage.
Budapest Airport director property and cargo, René Droese says: “Last year, we witnessed an outstanding 22.7 % increase in our cargo traffic – a clear indicator that the Hungarian economy is doing well, and the demand for export by air of high-value products like electronics or pharmaceuticals is growing.”
“Also, our foreign partners find more and more advantages in flying their cargo directly to Budapest, due to its central location in the heart of Europe.”
In 2017 Budapest will finalise the construction of two new offices and warehouse facilities and hand them over to DHL and TNT Express as part of BUD 2020, a five-year development programme including the construction of the Cargo City project with 16,000 square metres of warehouse and office space next to Terminal 2, scheduled to open by the end of 2018.
