By Manik Mehta, AJOT

Cologne/Bonn Airport, Germany's second largest cargo airport after Frankfurt, expects impulses from the new DHL Cargo Centre which was recently opened at the airport in an effort to handle the steadily growing volume of cargo.

Oliver Wittke, the Transport Minister of the German state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) ' (the airport is located in the state of NRW) ' along with Michael Garvens, the chief executive of the Cologne/Bonn Airport and DHL's European chief, Lars Jordahn were present at the inauguration of the cargo center.

The construction of the 6,300 sq. meter sorting center had become urgently necessary, Garvens explained to journalists who attended the opening ceremony. "Cargo is an important business for us, and accounts for some 40% of the total turnover. Last year we handled 613,000 tons of cargo here," Garvens said.

The two existing DHL cargo centers, which were bursting at the seams, had become inadequate to accommodate the increased volume, DHL executive Robert Mertens said. "It was too congested here," he added. "As a result of the new hall, we can now handle 35% more cargo than before. The new hall should suffice for the coming years."

At the sorting centre, which houses large quantities of goods from a number of manufacturers, consignments are sorted for direct shipment to individual recipients. Twenty-one aircraft and 70 trucks leave the DHL sorting center each day, flying or transporting cargo by road to destinations as varied as Hong Kong, Brussels, or Bergamo in Italy. DHL sources say that the new center will create 60 new part-time jobs.

A major advantage enjoyed by Cologne/Bonn Airport is that cargo can be shipped out at night. Garvens carried out an information campaign among residents to dispel their fear that more freight would also result in more noise. "Although the volume of cargo has doubled, the number of freight aircraft movements has actually declined," Garvens argued. "Over and above, we are using noiseless aircraft such as the Boeing 757. The residents need not worry that things will become louder."

NRW's Transport Minister Wittke predicted a "great future" for the aviation sector. "And we don't want this future to lie in other cities," he said.

Cargo experts said that the opening of the cargo hall was "strategically well-timed for the Christmas season." Garvens said the cargo hall bore testimony to the airport's importance. DHL has leased the new hall initially for a ten-year period, until 2015, although it plans to effect a partial relocation to Leipzig in 2008. The airport has invested six million euro for the construction of the new cargo center and another three million euro to create the related infrastructure. DHL sorts some 350 tons of freight each day at the Cologne/Bonn Airport.

Meanwhile, Cologne/Bonn Airport representatives are predicting "good growth" in cargo traffic in the current year. In 2004 the airport handled a volume of 613,296 tons, up by 16% from 527,400 tons in 2003. Airport representatives emphasize that despite the tonnage growth, the number of freighter aircraft movements remained the same as in 2003.

Astrid Endriss, spokeswoman for the Cologne/Bonn Airport, told the American Journal of Transportation that airfreight is of "vital importance" for Cologne/Bonn airport. "Cologne/Bonn is Germany's second largest cargo airport after Frankfurt, and number six in Europe in terms of overall cargo volume," she said.

Providing a breakdown of the airport's cargo business, she explained that some 77.2% of freight handled by Cologne/Bonn is integrated freight, while 18.9% is general cargo (mainly transported by Lufthansa Cargo, British Airways, etc.), 0.5% is belly cargo (transported directly from passenger aircraft and not offloaded in the cargo section of the airport), and 2.3% is mail.

With FedEx operating 11 flights a week with 5 MD aircraft since February of this year and the new UPS sorting operation, Endriss is upbeat about the airport's future.

Cologne/Bonn Airport's future strateg