Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) is participating at Air Cargo Europe 2019, the world’s largest exhibition and conference for the air cargo industry.
The event brings together the biggest players in the airfreight industry to network and explore potential partnership opportunities, providing an opportunity for BAC to highlight the advantages of operating out of Bahrain International Airport (BIA), as well as the improvements being made to its air cargo infrastructure as part of the Airport Modernization Program.
More than 2,000 exhibitors are expected to attend this year’s event, which is taking place in Munich, Germany, from 4 to 7 June 2019.
During the event, BAC team members will showcase BIA’s ongoing development projects to international logistics companies and freight forwarders with the aim of attracting new businesses to the airport.
The event will also enable BAC to forge new business relationships with other regional and international airports and learn from their experiences. In addition, BAC team members will present the company’s vision for BIA’s upcoming new Cargo Area, a state-of-the-art, automated facility that will help turn logistics and air cargo into one of Bahrain’s primary industries.
Located to the north of BIA runway, the 25,000 square meters new Cargo Area comprises of warehouses, aircraft parking and associated infrastructure. Its development is in line with the objectives of the Higher Organizing Committee chaired by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Through the introduction of the new facility, BAC aims to build strategic partnerships with multinational logistics providers, which will help strengthen Bahrain's position as a leading provider of efficient logistics services in the GCC and wider Middle East. At the beginning of the year, US multinational courier company FedEx Express signed up as the anchor tenant and will operate 9,000sqm at the new facility.
The new Cargo Area will also support major players already based at the airport, including DHL Express, which recently signed an agreement to extend its current lease with BIA for another 10 years.
The renewal means that Bahrain is set to continue its growth as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional hub for the global logistics giant. This, in turn, will support the country’s sustained economic growth in accordance with its Economic Vision 2030.
In 2018, BIA handled 288,235 kgs of cargo in total. This included 155,587 kgs in imports, 68,242 in exports and 64,406 in trans-shipments. When the new Cargo Area opens, it will enable the airport to handle even larger numbers and volumes of shipments, creating new jobs in the process.
There are many lucrative opportunities for logistics and air cargo companies in the GCC’s $1.5 trillion market, and Bahrain is an ideal location from which to access them due to its fast and direct transport links, some of the regions lowest operating costs, and its highly skilled, bilingual workforce.
