Leipzig/Halle Airport – the hub for medical goods: the world’s largest aircraft transports Covid-19 tests to Germany
There are plans for the AN-225 to continue flying to Germany during the next few weeks.
This is the 30th time that this unique plane has landed at the Central German airport. This means that LEJ is one of the airports most frequently visited by the AN-225 anywhere in the world. The aircraft was unloaded by PortGround, the subsidiary of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG, which specialises in handling planes and cargo.
A central handling centre in the pandemic
Leipzig/Halle Airport is a central handling point for medical goods in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. It is Germany’s second-largest air freight handling centre and safeguards important logistics and supply chains across Europe. In addition to regular traffic, companies at the airport have handled more than 100 freight charter flights carrying millions of Covid-19 tests during the last few months. Dozens more shipments are expected before the end of this year.
LEJ: the hub for express and e-commerce shipments and freight charter flights with dynamic growth rates
Freight volumes at Leipzig/Halle Airport, Europe’s fourth-largest air cargo hub, have been continually increasing for 16 years.
The airport set a new record in October this year when companies based there handled 141,173 tonnes of freight. The cargo handled during the first ten months of this year has amounted to approx. 1.3 million tonnes, an increase of 16.9 percent over the previous year.
The airport is DHL’s largest hub anywhere in the world and it is the first regional air cargo centre for Amazon Air in Europe. This makes LEJ one of the most important hubs for express and e-commerce shipments.
Overall, more than 80 cargo airlines fly to the airport and serve a network of routes, which encompasses more than 270 destinations around the globe. The airport handles as many as 1,300 take-offs and landings in the freight traffic business every week.
More than 10,800 people are currently employed at Leipzig/Halle Airport and at companies and public authorities based there. This includes approx. 8,200 in the freight handling, cargo airline, logistics and freight forwarding sectors alone.