Luxembourg Airport has become the sixth busiest cargo airport in the European Union with 8.2 per cent growth in 2016, with camels, lynx and tigers among the animals to travel through the hub.
It handled 821,000 tonnes of cargo in 2016, allowing it to overtake Cologne-Bonn Airport and is only preceded by Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, London Heathrow and Leipzig-Halle.
Qatar Airways chose Luxembourg Airport as its European hub and increased its flights from six a week to 17, and plans to increase services further when more parking spaces on the cargo apron become available.
Cargolux remained the largest customer with 675,000 tonnes, with Qatar Airways in second at 44,170 tonnes, Atlas Air was third with 39,000 tonnes and Silk Way West was fourth at 19,100 tonnes.
139,766 animals passed through Luxair Cargo’s doors including 10 brown bears, four bulls, six camels, 34 cows, 1,534 horses, 3,457 pigs, 1,047 dogs, two lynxes, 65 swans, nine tigers and 12 zebras.
Luxembourg Airport is expanding facilities with extending the cargo apron to allow for 12 Boeing 747-8 Freighter positions when completed by mid-2018, and a further expansion is possible to allow for 16 at the same time.
Luxair Cargo has invested in a fast lane truck-loading terminal for ULDs and is extending the outsized and heavy shipment handling area with a new 3,000-m2 building.
Pharmaceuticals continue to grow, passing 30,000 tonnes and both Cargolux and Luxair Cargo renewed their GDP certificates.
In June 2016, lux-Airport signed a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Airport’s Eastern Air Logistics to create a GDP certified trade lane between Luxembourg and Shanghai similar to the one with Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals the previous year.
