Two state-of-the-art express facilities have opened at Budapest Airport, as part of the EUR160 million (HUF50 billion) BUD:2020 Development Programme.

DHL Express is the latest to launch at the warehouse and office complexes, which have automated sorting systems, and represent the largest air cargo development at Budapest Airport to date, with a total land area development of just over 60,000 square meters.

"DHL Express has already been present in Hungary for more than 25 years. The new lease agreement between Budapest Airport and DHL Express for another 15 years clearly reflects the commitment of Deutsche Post DHL Group to Hungary and the airport," said Zoltán Bándli, Managing Director, DHL Express Hungary.

"The 6,000 m2 warehouse capacity will give DHL space to accommodate the volume growth of our business, with the new state-of-the-art sorting technology, which includes fully automatic shipment processing, allowing us to process more than 6,000 pieces per hour, which is three times our current capacity.

"As DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Freight are also located at Budapest Airport, synergies between the three business units will strengthen, and contribute to a more effective operation, further improvement of services, and development of cross dock businesses. The move will also mean a quality improvement in working conditions, and further efficiency gains in warehouse operations."

More than 600 employees will be based at the two new express complexes, which are located in the area next to Terminal 1, further cementing Budapest Airport's role as a regional leader for integrators.

The next freight phase of the BUD:2020 Development Programme will be the development of Cargo City next to Terminal 2, due to be completed in 2019.

The new facilities will provide centralised cargo operations, and expand the Hungarian hub's cargo handling capacity to 250,000 tonnes per year.

"We are pleased to kick start a new era for cargo at Budapest Airport with the opening of our new express facilities," said René Droese, Director Property and Cargo, Budapest Airport.

"We have seen strong cargo growth during the last 18 months, and we look forward to further establishing Budapest Airport as the ideal location for air cargo distribution in Central Europe."

Budapest Airport handled a record volume of 72,161 tonnes of air cargo from January to July 2017, an increase of 19.6 per cent on 2016.

The Hungarian hub experienced continuous growth with new freighters, such as Qatar Airways Cargo, the volume increase of current freighter partners, such as Cargolux and Turkish Cargo, and the belly cargo capacity of passenger operators, including Air China and Emirates Airlines.

The recently announced LOT Polish Airlines services from Budapest to New York and Chicago, and the daily American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Budapest will establish direct belly cargo connections between Hungary and the cargo hubs in the USA.

Contributed by Budapest Airport