Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish an emergency logistics hub for humanitarian tasks.
Through the agreement, LEJ will offer some of its warehousing facilities for the storage of emergency cargo, while Volga-Dnepr will offer its aircraft for humanitarian operations.
Both parties will strategically cooperate to promote the hub through marketing campaigns and workshops to non-government organisations and other other stakeholders involved in emergency logistics.
Tatyana Arslanova, executive operating officer at Volga-Dnepr Group, commented: "Last year has shown that the industry needs to be better prepared to guarantee emergency response when and where it is needed. By setting up the Humanitarian Hub in Leipzig/Halle we are focusing on quality enhancement of the services for the sector and upscaling our capabilities.
"We are all well aware that humanitarian operations admit of no delays and staying ahead we aim for disruption-free cargo transportations to deliver essential commodities, medical supplies, sophisticated equipment or pharmaceutical products.
"With Volga-Dnepr's 30+ of experience and contribution of our strategic airline partners, we gained competences to spin special cargoes across the globe and will be able to develop our humanitarian services together with reliable and trustworthy companies, like Leipzig/Halle Airport”.
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Mario Patyk, head of business development cargo/logistics at LEJ, added: "Leipzig/Halle Airport is the ideal logistics platform for rapidly handling all kinds of humanitarian aid and a new logistics centre for disaster management is also being built here as part of an EU programme.
"At the same time, the airport is demonstrating its prowess as an efficient hub for medical protective equipment and Covid-19 tests in the battle against the pandemic and is also the starting point for aid flights transporting technical equipment and pharmaceuticals to destinations in Europe, Africa and South America.
"We’re not only able to pool efficient infrastructure and logistics expertise, but also extensive cargo airline capacity by cooperating with our long-standing partner, the Volga-Dnepr Group, at Leipzig/Halle – and this capacity can be put to use anywhere in the world round the clock."
