Budapest Airport: Strengthening cargo relations with China

Budapest Airport and the Ningbo International Airport & Logistics Development Company have signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Shanghai. Ningbo International is an airport with significant cargo development potential, located in the most highly developed economic region of China, approx. 200 kms from Shanghai. The parties primarily expect an upturn in cargo relations from the cooperation.

The representatives of Budapest Airport and Ningbo International Airport established direct contact in 2014, and now formalized their increasingly close cooperation in an agreement, which also harmonizes with the “Opening to the East” policy of the Hungarian government. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, Dr László Szabó held talks with the Vice Governor of Zheijang Province and the Major of Ningbo city in June 2015 in Ningbo. During the meeting Dr Szabó welcomed the possibility of launching the Budapest-Ningbo direct and cargo flight. Dr Szabó emphasized that the direct flight and cargo connection can significantly contribute to strengthened economic and trade relations and further develop people-to-people contacts between Hungary and China. The leaders of Ningbo Airport previously visited Budapest, to gather information on development prospects in Central and Eastern Europe and opportunities for the launch of direct cargo flights. This dialog has now been elevated to a new level with the signing of the strategic cooperation agreement, which was also attended by Olivér Pál Pintér, deputy consul general of Hungary in Shanghai, and Wang Renzhou, deputy mayor of the Ningbo Municipal Government. The document was signed on behalf of Budapest Airport by property and cargo director René Droese, along with senior cargo manager József Kossuth, and by director Zheng Zhiyin from the Ningbo International Airport and Logistics Development Company.

Ningbo International Airport is one of the fastest-growing airports in the Yangtze River delta region. It handled 6.36 million passengers and approximately 113 000 tons of air cargo in 2014. The airport’s 3.2 kilometer-long runway is suitable for all large cargo aircraft. The economic significance of the region is further enhanced by the fact that, in addition to the airport, it also has a busy seaport. The airport plans to increase passenger traffic to 12 million and cargo volume to 500,000 tons in 5 years, by 2020, with the most significant development expected in the cargo area.

“The signing of this strategic cooperation agreement is of great significance, since it is in the interest of both Budapest Airport and Ningbo Airport to have a direct cargo flight between China and Hungary in the near future,” said René Droese, property and cargo executive director for Budapest Airport, during the signing ceremony. “This agreement foresees even broader cooperation, as the competent specialists from the two airports also decided to exchange information and know-how directly. Budapest could be an ideal Eastern European logistics and distribution hub for Chinese exporters, since the 1000 km catchment area of our airport includes no less than 19 countries,” he added.

Budapest Airport’s delegation is participating in the Air Cargo China Summit, an international conference bringing together the world’s leading air cargo experts, held at the Shanghai Expo venue. At Budapest Airport, total cargo volume increased by 2% and air cargo volume by 7.6% until the end of October, compared to 2014 figures, with the latter considered a good achievement even by international comparison. Chinese cargo traffic is also growing dynamically, with the re-launch of the direct flight between Beijing and Budapest by Air China playing a key role. The flight commutes four times a week between the two capitals, carrying 10-12 tons of cargo on each occasion in the cargo hold of the airliner (so-called belly cargo). It is noteworthy that almost the entire cargo capacity has been booked by Hungarian exporters transporting primarily electronics and pharmaceutical products to China, exceeding the volume of Chinese goods brought to Hungary by approximately a quarter.