DHL Express has moved into its new warehouse and office complex at Budapest Airport, becoming the latest tenant at the airport’s two new express facilities.

“DHL Express has already been present in Hungary for more than 25 years,” said Zoltán Bándli, managing director of DHL Express Hungary. “The new lease agreement between Budapest Airport and DHL Express for another 15 years clearly reflects the commitment of Deutsche Post DHL Group to Hungary and the airport. The 6,000m² warehouse capacity will give DHL space to accommodate the volume growth of our business, with the new state-of-the-art sorting technology, which includes fully automatic shipment processing, allowing us to process more than 6,000 pieces per hour, which is three times our current capacity. As DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Freight are also located at Budapest Airport, synergies between the three business units will strengthen, and contribute to a more effective operation, further improvement of services, and development of cross dock businesses. The move will also mean a quality improvement in working conditions, and further efficiency gains in warehouse operations.”

Part of the airport’s €160 million (US$190 million) BUD:2020 Development Programme, the new facilities represent the largest air cargo development at Budapest Airport to date, with a total land area development of just over 60,000 square metres. More than 600 employees will be based at the two complexes, which are located in the area next to Terminal 1.

According to the airport, the next freight phase of the BUD:2020 Development Programme will be the development of Cargo City next to Terminal 2, due to be completed in 2019. The project will provide centralized cargo operations and expand Budapest’s cargo-handling capacity to 250,000 tonnes per year.

“We are pleased to kick start a new era for cargo at Budapest Airport with the opening of our new express facilities,” said René Droese, director of property and cargo at Budapest Airport. “We have seen strong cargo growth during the last 18 months, and we look forward to further establishing Budapest Airport as the ideal location for air cargo distribution in Central Europe.”

Cargo volume grew 19.6% year-on-year to 72,161 tonnes from January to July 2017, according to Budapest Airport.