Vienna Airport has reported a strong increase in belly cargo, a positive indicator that the industry is returning to pre-Covid normality in terms of capacity.
The airport reports that the return of passenger flights roughly doubled the volume of belly freight in January and February 2022 compared to 2021.
With a weight of 20,770 tonnes in January 2022, Vienna Airport records an increase of about 5% compared to January 2021.
In February 2022, weight reached 18,259 tonnes, a similar level to the previous year. This equates to approximately 20% growth in annual tonnage recorded by the Austrian airport in 2021 (261,299 tonnes) compared to 2020 (217,887 tonnes).
For the electronics and automotive industries in particular, valuable supply chains between Asia and Central and Eastern Europe are emerging from Vienna.
Cargo-only flights already connect Austria’s capital with important hubs such as Seoul-Incheon, Istanbul or Baku and regular ‘Preighter’ flights have also been established to Taipei and Hanoi.
“In order to maintain supply chains, we have recently seen an increase of customer demand on this route. Vienna Airport serves us as an ideal hub for the catchment area throughout Central and Eastern Europe,” says Stefan Krauter, CEO of cargo-partner.
“Thanks to our excellent infrastructure and handling capacities, Vienna Airport has established itself as an ideally positioned air cargo hub for Central and Eastern Europe. With the addition of further flights, we are able to further expand our cargo capacities to Asia or North America, for example,” adds Michael Zach, vice president sales & finance, ground handling & cargo operations at Vienna Airport.
