Airfreight passing through Budapest Airport has increased by 11.3 per cent since the beginning of this year.

The gateway in Central Europe says the bulk of this was transported by all-cargo carriers, but bellyhold cargo volumes grew just as strongly.

Budapest has handled 6,770 tonnes of air cargo every month so far in 2016, and the airport says while the Hungarian capital city’s turnover is increasing dynamically, the cargo industry throughout Europe has not seen such development.

It explains that growth of only 2.7 per cent was recorded on the continent in May, while cargo volumes declined on the American continent and in Africa.

A large contributing factor in the growth of volumes at Budapest was the re-launch of Qatar Cargo this March using an Airbus A330 Freighter with a payload of 60 tonnes to and from Doha. Additionally, carriers such as Cargolux and Turkish Cargo also continued to put in a strong performance.

Budapest is also preparing for the construction of a new air cargo base – the so-called Cargo City – in the close proximity of Terminal 2, towards Vecsés, where warehouse and office capacity for handling up to 200,000 tonnes of freight per annum will be implemented in the next few years.