First Vienna Cargo Day in the AirportCity: Air Cargo Industry Met in Vienna for a "Journey into the Future"

This week, Vienna Airport was the focal point of the international air cargo industry: On Oct. 9, 2023, the first Vienna Cargo Day took place at AirportCity, directly followed by FlyPharma Europe 2023 on Oct. 10-11. More than 400 international air cargo industry representatives gathered at Vienna Airport on these three days to exchange news and trends on topics such as sustainability, digitalization or hydrogen. The Vienna Cargo Day was opened by TIACA President Steven Polmans, who emphasized how much such events help to make the industry even more attractive. Many interested guests also seized the opportunity to visit the state-of-the-art pharmaceutical handling facilities at Vienna International Airport.

The geographical location makes Vienna Airport the ideal cargo hub for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. In addition, connections to North and South America are to be developed more strongly in the future.

"Besides providing high quality cargo services, we also offer great know-how at the location. The cargo location Vienna bundles all the necessary competences and creates valuable synergies. The Cargo Day showed that an intensive exchange between all stakeholders is important and advances the location as a whole," emphasizes Michael Zach, vice president sales, finance and cargo, ground handling and cargo operations at Vienna Airport.

But the appeal of the city of Vienna, which attracts large numbers of tourists every year and ensures strong belly business due to the high volume of air traffic, also helps the location. Sustainable practices and innovative technologies in real estate development have made AirportCity one of the largest locations in the sustainable building sector in Austria.

"Vienna AirportCity scores points because it has long been more than just an airport. Only 20 minutes from Vienna city center, we now offer first-class real estate, offices and cargo space - embedded in urban infrastructure. The fruitful cooperation of the cargo community at the location creates new potential and improves processes at the location,” underlines Wolfgang Scheibenpflug, senior vice president real estate and landside management at Vienna Airport.

Vienna Cargo Day - AirportCity Offered Platform for Exchange on Potential in Air Cargo

The first Vienna Cargo Day gathered more than 400 experts and stakeholders from the cargo business at Vienna AirportCity. Together with the cargo community of the location and business partners, the sustainability of all cargo topics at Vienna Airport was discussed. At the Vienna Cargo Day, TIACA President Steven Polmans, Michael Zach, Vice President Sales, Finance & Cargo, Ground Handling & Cargo Operations at Vienna Airport, Wolfgang Scheibenpflug, Senior Vice President Real Estate & Landside Management at Vienna Airport, and Peter Reulbach, Senior Manager Cargo Business Development and Cargo Community Manager at Vienna Airport, among others, provided exciting insights into current and future developments in cargo handling, the cargo community and Airport City with regard to sustainability and digitalization. In addition to digitalization and new possibilities offered by hydrogen, the discussions focused on current developments at the airport and at AirportCity. Participants included representatives of Lufthansa Cargo, Kühne + Nagel, DHL Global Forwarding and Swissport Cargo Services Austria as well as numerous other companies and scientists.

Fly Pharma - Industry Conference for Experts at the Competence Location Vienna

FlyPharma Europe in Vienna provided an attractive platform to discuss current and future challenges in the pharmaceutical and air cargo industry. Key topics included market trends, cold chain innovations, latest regulatory requirements, security technologies and fostering collaboration between supply chain players. Massive infrastructure investments in recent years have also further strengthened the role of Vienna Airport as one of the most important pharma destinations. The state-of-the-art facilities of the Pharma Handling Center opened in 2018, which could be visited as one of the highlights of FlyPharma Europe 2023, offer perfect conditions for an even better and, above all, safe, high-quality, transparent and monitored all-round service in this area.

Vienna Airport - High-Performance Air Cargo Location with own Pharma Handling Center

Due to extensive investments in its logistics infrastructure, Vienna International Airport is a global cargo gateway for Central and Eastern Europe and an important air cargo hub for neighboring Eastern European logistics routes. Especially for intercontinental transports, Vienna Airport is used by leading cargo airlines such as Lufthansa Cargo, Emirates Cargo, Eva Air Cargo, Korean Air Cargo, Asiana, Cargolux, Turkish Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo or Silk Way West Airlines. With the Vienna Airport Pharma Handling Center (VPHC), the airport operates its own competence center for handling temperature-sensitive cargo without interrupting the cold chain.