Leipzig has potential to emerge as ‘Berlin e-commerce hub’

Property specialist says the German cargo airport has all the necessary assets such as available land, flight connections and a strong purchasing demographic.

Leipzig Halle Airport has the potential to emerge as a cross-border e-commerce hub serving Berlin’s vast consumer market, with its high number of millennials with a propensity to purchase goods online, according to one real estate operator that has a logistics park under development next to the east German airport.

Airport Development AG recently sold a 114,500 sqm plot of land at the site to Panattoni Europe, with the property developer planning to invest around €40 million in the construction of a logistics centre offering more than 50,000 sqm of handling space. Delivery is scheduled for early 2021.

“Panattoni is building this facility on spec and we don’t yet know what the tenant profile will be,” Airport Development AG’s director of business development at its Airport Park Leipzig Halle Andre Morrall, told Lloyd’s Loading List in an interview.

“But if it is looking to sign up an e-commerce retailer, then the proposition would be a very attractive one – access to a cargo-friendly airport and DHL Express’ main European hub in two minutes, and a considerable online consumer base only one-and-a-half hours away by road to the north in Berlin and its environs.”

As reported in Lloyd’s Loading List,, earlier this month, German publication Deutsche Verkehrs Zeitung (DVZ) reported that Leipzig Airport-based DHL airline, European Air Transport (EAT), was flying exclusively during the day for Amazon with its B757 freighters serving East Midlands, Paris and Madrid, with the aircraft returning to duty on behalf of DHL Express for overnight intra-European operations.

Morrall confirmed there were e-commerce-dedicated cargo flights “active” at Leipzig, but he declined to comment on whether they were being operated on behalf of Amazon, it being a “very sensitive” topic.

Of the mid-sized cargo-specialist airports in Europe, Belgium’s Liège has been probably the most successful to date in attracting major e-commerce players, having been selected by Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, as the location of one of its five global hubs. The Chinese giant is planning to invest €75 million at the airport, with Cainiao leasing a 220,000 sqm facility that is scheduled to start operations in early 2021.

“I think what is happening in Liège could happen in Leipzig,” Morrall noted. “It certainly has the necessary assets in terms of available land, proximity to an airport, and a strong e-commerce purchasing demographic.

E-commerce aside, Morrall also highlighted Leipzig’s potential to become a viable alternative to Frankfurt for traditional air cargo and for freighter traffic in particular.

He pointed to “a real ‘herding’ mentality in Germany”, in which Frankfurt is seen as the hub for large volumes of both maindeck and belly freight, adding: “But Frankfurt is running almost at its full capacity and the question is where is this capacity going to come from in the future?”

This ‘herding’ had led to a situation in which an estimated 600,000 tonnes of air cargo annually that either originated in or is destined for eastern Germany being trucked to and from Frankfurt.

“There’s a real case for more of this freight going to Leipzig,” he added. “Processing times are shorter and there’s less congestion on the roads. Anybody who’s in the freight business looking for efficiencies should really be turning their attention to Leipzig.”

Morrall concluded: “But there’s work to be done in building stronger relationships with carriers, forwarders and GSAs, while also getting the message across that Leipzig is the cargo airport for the Berlin metropolis, the city’s new airport, opening in 2020, being essentially to cater for the low-cost passenger segment.”

Some logistics observers note that most air freight stakeholders prefer to remain at the big hubs, even if they are not the best place for them to operate, while others observe that those European airports that are growing fastest are already in Europe’s top 10 – such as Cologne, Leipzig, Liège and Luxembourg – and given the momentum those airports have built up, they expect that growth to continue.

Source: Lloyd’s