The agreement creates the framework for long-term cooperation in the fields of market and strategy development with a major focus on e-commerce and an exchange of experiences and information as well as personnel. Geared towards the long term, the cooperation arrangement aims to establish and expand air freight traffic between the two airports.
The signing of the memorandum of understanding is linked to the traditionally good relations between Vietnam and the Central German region, which go back to the 1950s and therefore provide a promising basis for intensive and trusting cooperation between the airports in Hanoi and Leipzig/Halle.
Alongside China, Vietnam is one of the dynamically growing markets for e-commerce and logistics with a constantly increasing volume of goods and items originating in the region. The volume of air freight between Vietnam and the EU rose by 94 percent* between 2012 and 2017 and by 70 percent* between Vietnam and Germany.
Because it handles more than 1.14 million tonnes per annum, Leipzig/Halle Airport is the fifth-largest cargo airport in Europe and will continue to develop as a multimodal e-commerce hub during the next few years. The German government’s coalition agreement also envisages further strengthening the air freight site at Leipzig/Halle.
Noi Bai International Airport is one of the largest airports in Vietnam and handles annual cargo volumes totalling about 712,700 tonnes – and, like Leipzig/Halle Airport, offers further growth potential.
Economic Affairs Minister, Martin Dulig, says, “Leipzig/Halle Airport forms the core of the logistics region in Central Germany. The modern infrastructure and the 24-hour operating permit for freight traffic have created significant growth in the volumes of freight being handled. We want to continue this success story. The memorandum of understanding that we’ve signed today can open up new doors for us in south-east Asia and make a contribution towards continuing to strengthen Saxony as a business centre.”
“Leipzig/Halle Airport fulfils all the conditions for acting as a multimodal hub for flows of goods between Vietnam, Germany and Europe in future and has been able to attract an important player in the region in the form of Noi Bai International Airport,” says Götz Ahmelmann, Chairman of the Board of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG, and adds, “In addition to the general conditions in the form of ideal infrastructure, the continually developing product portfolio in terms of logistics services at the airport creates the basis for establishing direct transport services in future.”
*Source: Eurostat