50 % growth for aviapartner cargo SERVICES
19 % growth for aviapartner handling SERVICES
Brussels, 26 March 2008: Aviapartner is proud to announce significant volume growth in both of her Handling and Cargo business units for the year 2007.
Aviapartner Cargo Services:
In 2007 Aviapartner Cargo registered impressive volume increases, totalling 1,448,000 tons of cargo handled, which represents a 48.8 % increase compared to 2006.
The main areas of growth were in the Netherlands, France and Belgium. In the Netherlands, Aviapartner Cargo took over Aero Groundservices in April 2007, which handled 434,000 tons of cargo last year.
In France, Aviapartner Cargo handled 60,000 tons of cargo in 2007 (+14%), with the largest growth rates in Paris (+ 32.5%) and Lyon (+27%). In Paris, Aviapartner doubled its warehouse capacity in 2006 (currently 6,600 m²), which bore fruit in 2007 by attracting new customers such as Aeroflot, Finnair, NCA, Gollog (ex-Varig), and Aer Lingus.
In Belgium, Aviapartner Cargo handled 392,000 tons of cargo in 2007 (+14%), with the largest increase in Ostend (+56%) thanks to the full year impact of the acquisition of MK Airlines as new customer in the summer of 2006.
Aviapartner Handling Services:
In 2007, Aviapartner Handling handled a total of 268,000 flights throughout the group, which represents an 18.7% increase. Every country in the Aviapartner Handling network booked growth in 2007 thanks to overall increased commercial efforts: Belgium (+4.8%), France (+13.6%), Germany (+10.9%), The Netherlands (+25.3%), and Italy (+84.6%).
The outstanding growth of Aviapartner’s Italian operations is thanks to the addition of three stations to the network in 2006: Milan-Malpensa, Milan-Linate, and Rome-Fiumicino.
The total number of passengers handled by Aviapartner throughout its network grew to a total of 29.3 million passengers.
Peter Oostenenk, CEO of the AVIAPARTNER Group: We are very proud about these growth figures, as this illustrates our capacity to follow a healthy growth strategy, through acquisitions and certainly also through organic growth. We intend to continue in the same direction by further strengthening and extending our network. Our network is recognised as the most comprehensive in Continental Europe by our customers, which enhances our capacity to conclude network deals with all airline segments: flag carriers, low-cost carriers, charters and cargo airlines. Our cargo network, for example, now includes the four major cargo hubs Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris-CDG and Brussels, which definitely solidifies our position on the cargo market.