Volga-Dnepr Group expands at LEJ / As many as 500 new jobs

MOU to establish a long-term partnership at Leipzig/Halle Airport

The Volga-Dnepr Group and Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG (MFAG) will continue to expand their strategic partnership at Leipzig/Halle Airport in the areas of air freight and logistics. Both companies agreed this in a Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU), which was signed today in the presence of the Saxon State Minister of Finances, Dr Matthias Hass, at the 53rd International Paris Air Show in Le Bourget.

The Group and MFAG will join their forces in creating effective logistics system in Leipzig/Halle Airport to boost cargo infrastructure development and set Leipzig/Halle as freight multimodal hub for scheduled and charter operations of the Group.

The agreement involving the two companies means a further boost for the Cargo Hub Leipzig/Halle; investments of up to EUR 500 million are due to be made to expand this facility during the next few years. The Group will operate both char-ter and scheduled operations to/from Leipzig/Halle Airport, accumulating regular and project traffic on board AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Volga-Dnepr Airlines. Boeing freighter fleet will fly up to 20 weekly flights to/from Leipzig/Halle Airport since the end of 2021, while gradually increasing this number till 50 in 2030.

Both companies are also planning to intensify their cooperation in the fields of marketing, sales as well as the development of business and personnel. As many as 500 new jobs are due to be created in various fields of activity as part of this cooperation arrangement.

Konstantin Vekshin, Executive President, Charter Cargo Operations of Volga-Dnepr: “We have been striving to set up and develop effective system of regional hubs throughout the world to secure timely response to our customers’ requirements, specifically, given a recent trend involving greater share and volumes of special loads. Nearly three decades of our experience, bolstered by knowledge and expertise will serve as a guarantee for the transformation of Leipzig airport into a vertically integrated multimodal hub.”

Dr Matthias Hass, Minister of Finances in the Free State of Saxony, said: "The long-term commitment by the Volga-Dnepr Group is a huge success story for Leipzig/Halle Airport. This achievement in attracting the company once again shows that we’ve adopted the right course at the airport. Leipzig/Halle Airport will make major investments during the next few years. This will create more jobs and the complete Leipzig/Halle region will benefit as a result. This is what I think successful site development with strong partners should look like.”

Götz Ahmelmann emphasised, “Our strategy for Leipzig/Halle is clear. There are capacity bottlenecks in air traffic across Europe. We have the capacity re-serves that are urgently required. We’re delighted that the Volga-Dnepr Group, one of our most important partners, is now taking the next step in its develop-ment. The signing of the MOU is another milestone in our cooperation arrange-ment that is based on trust. We want to continue developing the Cargo Hub Leipzig/Halle together.” 

Volga-Dnepr Group: a significant partner for Leipzig/Halle Airport

Being among the Group’s long-standing strategic partners, Leipzig airport hosts VDA operational base which has been functioning with assistance from Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Service GmbH (AMTES), part of Volga-Dnepr Technics. For the next 30 years AMTES will take on lease renewed hangar facili-ties to maintain effective and timely MRO of the Group’s fleet. The company is also targeted to modernize existing 12 An-124-100 planes to meet existing ICAO requirements.

Leipzig/Halle Airport: 24/7 operations for cargo flights, direct links to the trans-European road and railway networks, space and capacity reserves as well as extensive logistics services from one source

Leipzig/Halle Airport handled more than 1.22 million tonnes of cargo in 2018, making it the fifth-largest air freight hub in Europe and the number two in Ger-many. Freight volumes have increased more than tenfold since 2007 and con-tinue to grow significantly. The main driving force for growth at Leipzig/Halle is the DHL hub – but the cargo business excluding DHL is also developing in a pos-itive manner. Overall, more than 50 airlines fly to over 200 destinations around the globe from Leipzig/Halle every year.

Because of the increase in demand, investments of approx. EUR 500 million will be made in new apron areas, logistics and office buildings in the northern and southern parts of Leipzig/Halle Airport during the next few years.

The airport has a 24-hour operating permit for cargo flights and direct links to the trans-European motorway and railway networks in a north-south and an east-west direction. As a result, Leipzig/Halle offers ideal conditions for trans-porting goods by road and rail. The take-off and landing system involves two parallel runways, each 3,600 metres long, which can be used independently of each other in CAT IIIB conditions.

DHL has been operating its European hub there since 2008. The company has been maintaining the largest hub within its global network at Leipzig/Halle since 2008 and has invested EUR 655 million in its construction.

Plans are also currently being drawn up to expand the infrastructure in the apron area used by DHL, which currently offers space for as many as 60 aircraft. The intended expansion project will provide up to 36 more parking positions, regard-less of which aircraft type is involved.

Leipzig/Halle Airport is also the home base for AeroLogic, a joint venture oper-ated by DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo.