Airline collapse halts new cargo centre

BUDAPEST Liszt Ferenc International Airport says it expects to increase the amount of freight it handles this year, despite shelving its plans for a state-of-the-art reloading centre.
The airport decided to postpone its Cargo City project for a year after reviewing the financial resources available following the collapse of Hungary’s national airline Malev in February.
Vice-president Christa Soltau told Air Cargo News: “We handled 106,000 metric tonnes last year and we are expecting to handle around that this year, [but] with a small increase because we have a new customer.”
The new reloading centre will have a capacity of up to 250,000 tonnes.
“We need to see what the [cargo] traffic will be like this year,” explains Soltau. “We still have buildings, which we are still going to upgrade for 50,000 tonnes extra [capacity].”
Malev imploded due to ‘unsustainable liabilities’ estimated at €550m (US$735.9m).
The 66-year-old airline’s collapse has released considerable reserve capacity in the airport’s new spacious Terminal 2, a spokesman reveals.

Terminal 1, which serves mainly low-cost airlines, will be closed temporarily so all flights can moved over to it.