Flight Global - Murdo Morrison
Cargo is key to the airport’s business model, given Bahrain’s ambition to become an east-to-west logistics and e-commerce crossroads for air, land and sea freight. The airport is home to one of German parcels and logistics giant DHL’s four global hubs.
The Khalifa bin Salman container port is just 10min by truck from the airport, allowing forwarders to transfer the content of containers from Asia to aircraft. Cargo can also travel by road via the causeway to Saudi Arabia.
BAC began work on a 25,000sq m Express Cargo Village on the north side of the runway in June, signing a 10-year agreement with DHL’s rival FedEx Express, which will move into a 9,000sq m area of the facility in the third quarter of next year. Albinfalah says negotiations are underway with further potential tenants. “Cargo and logistics is a major element of the government’s economic recovery plan,” says Albinfalah. “We are a component of that strategy.”