Budapest Airport looks at boosting China e-commerce flow

Aug 28, 2019: Budapest Airport (BUD), swiftly developing international air cargo hub, organised workshop events in Shanghai and Hong Kong for representatives from Chinese air cargo and e-commerce companies.

Chinese e-commerce giants Yunda Express, STO Express and SF Express, Qingdao and Xi’an airports, and the Consul General of Hungary in Shanghai, attended the workshops.

Together, they discussed several topics ranging from e-commerce to the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as competition from direct Chinese train services, and new routes opening between BUD and Chinese airports.

The Hungarian hub hopes to benefit from the workshops as the attendees learnt more about BUD’s capabilities and development plans including BUD Cargo City.

“Budapest Airport is right on track to becoming the main cargo hub for China in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region,” said Rene Droese, chief property and cargo officer, BUD, speaking at the conference.

“In the last few years the e-commerce market in CEE has increased to 80 billion EUR per annum, and from its central location, BUD can supply the entire region.”

“The newly launched Shanghai Airlines-operated direct flight between Shanghai and Budapest and its cargo capacity is a serious advantage for Hungary, which comes at the best possible time to gravitate the ever growing e-commerce business into the CEE region,” said Szilard Bolla, Consul General, Consulate General of Hungary in Shanghai.

“We have all the good reasons to believe that further flights and related logistics investment will follow from China and from the Asia Pacific region.”

BUD’s connections to China have increased this year with a new freighter flight operated by Cargolux to Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport (CGO), and a new belly cargo connection between BUD and PVG was opened this June.

Budapest Airport signs MoU with two major Chinese hubs

“Budapest Airport is set to become the ideal e-commerce environment for Chinese trade, and with BUD Cargo City opening this November, we will not only be supporting growth in the air cargo industry at large, but helping to meet regional demand for Chinese imports and exports,” said Droese.

BUD Cargo City will become Budapest Airport’s dedicated freight terminal which will include warehousing space and a forwarder building measuring 32,800 m2.

A 32,000 m2 concrete apron will expand the airport’s capacity for processing cargo with two additional parking positions for the simultaneous handling of two Boeing B-747-8F type aircraft.

The workshops were held in collaboration with Russian carrier AirBridgeCargo Airlines.