In response to the unbroken growth in cargo volume, the Vienna Airport has expanded its freight capacity by 13,000 m². “This means that the biggest construction project of the year 2017 at our location is completed smoothly, both in terms of time and budget,” says Günther Ofner, Member of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG.
Flughafen Wien AG invested around EUR 17.8 million to expand its Air Cargo Center. The multifunctional freight facility has direct access to the apron and is equipped with an 8,000 m² photovoltaic system on the roof. It went into operation at the beginning of October. Approximately 1,600 m² of this area are reserved for the handling of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals up to a maximum of 25 ° C. About 10 percent of the surface in the Pharma Handling Center are designed for cooled pharmaceutical products between 2 and 8 ° C.
With its expanded airfreight capacity, Vienna International Airport was taking into account the expected increase in parcels and goods and strengthening its partnerships in this segment, emphasised Dr. Günther Ofner and Mag. Julian Jäger, Members of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG, at a press conference.
The new Pharma Handling Center covering about 1,600 m² was set up in the recently enlarged Air Cargo Center. The facility works on the basis of a “box-in-box system”, which is a modular approach to secure different temperature ranges. A cold store with an area of 153 m² enables a temperature range of 2°-8°C, whereas another 1,415 m² of the cold storage facility can be temperature-controlled at a range of 15°-25°C. It was also vital to meet various other requirements such as cooling on the airport apron by reefer trailers as well as docking stations for lorries. Vienna Airport will invest about EUR 1.8 million in the new Pharma Handling Center until the autumn of 2018.
“Further growth is expected in the years to come, especially due to the strong increase in e-commerce. Our own investments, especially the locating of logistics partners at the airport site such as cargo-partner, Kühne + Nagel and soon DHL contribute to exploiting this growth potential. DHL will set up a logistics center on an area of over 60,000 m² and create 500 new jobs,” stated Günther Ofner.
However, a decisive factor of success will be expanding the transport and traffic infrastructure, for example realizing the Schwadorf-Fischamend bypass road project which goes by the western part of the airport fence as well as the Lobau Tunnel as a means of completing the motorway ring around Vienna.
