Budapest Airport cargo team announces new organizational structure

Budapest, Hungary, 2020-May-05 — /Travel PR News/ — Even though passenger traffic at BUD suffered a serious hit in March due to global travel restrictions to protect against the spread of Covid-19, cargo operations at Budapest Airport are in full swing and play a key role in the logistics supply of the economy and society in Hungary and in the Central Eastern European region. From April 2020, BUD cargo team provides the implementation of cargo developments at BUD in the frame of a new organizational structure.

In March 2020, BUD Cargo made strong efforts to secure smooth cargo operations at BUD, in spite of the challenging environment around the Covid-19 virus situation. With strong, dedicated teamwork and cooperation with all relevant stakeholders, BUD managed to create a smooth operational environment for cargo flights, even providing special screening and protection measures for crews. These actions continue to deliver positive results, as cargo volumes were +7.18% higher in March than last year, with first quarter results delivering 33 140 tons, an increase of 3.13% compared to 2019.

This growth has been fueled by the demand for much-needed medical equipment in Hungary, which has largely been arriving from China, to be transported across the country and even to neighboring countries, thereby demonstrating the pivotal role BUD plays in the region. In fact, more than 70 medical charters have been operating from China to BUD since the middle of March, and scheduled cargo flights also delivered lots of medical cargo. 80-85% of the total cargo traffic still consists of general air freight, but medical consignments have certainly boosted volumes.

Since 2015, the BUD Cargo team managed several great achievements relating to cargo developments at Budapest Airport under the leadership of René Droese, with the support and cooperation of the BUD Cargo community, cargo partners, airlines, cargo handlers, forwarders, integrators, GSAs, authorities, international aviation and local logistics associations. The cargo traffic of BUD increased by 60%, to approximately 150 000 tons annually, and connectivity was extended with several new full-freighter and belly cargo flights, resulting in several steps being made to create a cargo-friendly environment at Budapest Airport. BUD joined the logistics associations in Hungary and organized the work of our BUD cargo community in a more structured platform in the Aviation Working Group of the Hungarian Freight Forwarder Association. Unquestionably, the most visible achievement of the work in the last 5 years is the completion of the long-awaited, new BUD Cargo City, a 32 800 m2, state-of-the-art cargo handling and forwarder facility and adjoining new cargo apron with two code F 747-8F stands, which is fully operational now.

The cargo business has strategic importance at BUD, and this remains a stable and long-term vision within our business plans. Therefore, cargo development efforts will not stop; the task list is still very long, including, for example, the digitization of cargo, focus on special cargo, like pharma and live animals, optimizing the cargo environment, a known consigner and certified shipper program.

From April, René Droese, nominated as the new chief development officer of BUD, is responsible for all airport developments, and he will continue to support air cargo as a property and infrastructure developer, with his team.

The cargo business itself, including the airline sales and marketing activities, led by József Kossuth as head of cargo, moves to the Business Development Directorate, reporting to the chief commercial officer of BUD, Kam Jandu. The importance of the cargo business will remain unchanged at BUD, strengthened by new synergies in sales and marketing and adopting better marketing and sales practices and techniques from Kam’s great team, winning the annual Routes Europe Marketing Award, as overall winner, in 2019.

“It was a real pleasure for me to work on the development of BUD Cargo, to find and realize the development points for our cargo strategy, together with our cargo community. We finished as a team the first big milestone, and would like to say thank you to all our partners for the excellent support we received. I am proud to see the achievements with our BUD Cargo City development, and we are certainly happy to extend for the future. I know the cargo business remains in very good hands with József Kossuth and under the new leadership of my fellow exec, Kam Jandu,” said René Droese.

Kam Jandu added: “We will continue our cargo development work with József and his team, built on the great foundations already laid under Rene’s wings in the last five years, including the delivery of the Cargo City project. We are certainly counting on the support of our cargo community, and believe that together, we have a bright future for BUD Cargo!”

Contact:

Tel.: +36 (1) 296-9696

Source: Budapest Airport

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