Being at the epicentre of Germany's industrial and commercial heartland, Dusseldorf, its airport and logistics network provide the ideal distribution center for the whole of Northern Germany and Europe. Traditional manufacturing has been matched by modern hi-tech industries, generate around 35% of the country's output, which in turn creates by massive regional buying power. The airport is a key factor in this success story with some 17 million passengers flying per year and 96,000 tons of cargo via DU5 Cargo Logistics, the subsidiary of the Airport Duesseldorf. Gerton Hulsman, highly experienced in cargo operations, who has recently taken over the job of MD of DU5 Logistics, has clear objectives for future cargo traffic at Germany's third largest airport.

"Our company is one of seven profit centers of Duesseldorf Airport and handles the major slice of the cargo throughput. It's clear that with so many other competitive airports within a few hours drive, we have to keep on our toes to maintain our traffic, which means looking after our forwarders and attracting new customers. Giving that extra attention to customers and making extra effort to deliver high quality performance are therefore our top priorities. Of course we are fortunate to be at the heart of major passenger routes that means high bellyhold capacity. With Luthansa and Air Berlin/LTU both increasing routes including long haul and with carriers such as Emirates moving more than 15.000 tons. each year, this traffic is very healthy.

"It is now our aim to develop more freighter traffic at Dusseldorf. We have an excellent track record of handling large aircraft inbound such as B747/F and AN124, in fact we did over 100 charters in 2006, but our runway is not long enough for a fully laden outbound to destinations which are more than 10 Hours of flight. But for shorter routes where a full fuel load is not required, the runway is adequate.

However, we are perfect for the medium sized aircraft such as theB767, A 300,

A310 and A330s that feed cargo to the region and on return, export locally sourced high value goods. So the catchment area for our main potential is the Middle East, Africa and Indian sub continent, Our speed on the ground due to lack of congestion and short distance to our warehouse is another attraction and also if you consider the increasing reluctance of many big airports to accept all cargo flights, make freighter friendly airports such as Dusseldorf an easy choice for shippers, forwarders and airlines."

With a total of around 96.000 tons annually, Dus Logistics handles inbound cargo for 53 airlines and outbound for 30. The existing warehouse of 135,000 tons annual capacity can be increased to handle future expansion.