Leipzig/Halle Airport strengthens its activities as a humanitarian hub with the recent Volga-Dnepr’s charter flights to Namibia

This week two Volga-Dnepr Group’s humanitarian flights took off from Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ) to Windhoek in Namibia. Medical supplies, weighing over 95 tons, such as masks and respirators needed by this south African country heavily affected by the Corona pandemic were urgently delivered with An-124-100 flights.

In total, the German government's aid delivery consisted of more than 600 pallets or 1,200 cubic meters, which have been flown to southern Africa by Volga-Dnepr Airlines, one of the long-standing airport’s partners. The direct client is the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). A new logistics centre also initiated by ECHO for civil protection is to be built in Leipzig within the framework of the RescEU programme. The German Red Cross (DRK) will set up a new logistics centre for disaster control in the area surrounding the airport as part of the RescEU programme.

Yulia Celetaria, Global Healthcare Director for Volga-Dnepr Group, highlights: ‘Not only do these flights demonstrate our commitment toward Humanitarian sector but also come as a logical step for further development of long-lasting strategic cooperation between LEJ and Volga-Dnepr Group. Earlier this year we have signed MoU which will ramp up our capabilities in setting up an Emergency Logistics/Humanitarian Hub in LEJ and humanitarian flights to Namibia, organized in cooperation with our customer Maersk, is one of the roadmap’s steps’.

All partners involved in the further development of the airport into a humanitarian hub have also exchanged ideas in the course of flights preparation, thus enabling smooth and fast handling for these and other aid flights.