On 1 March the cargo version of Turkish Airlines’ Airbus A310 landed in Budapest at 14:30, approximately half an hour early, with approximately 33 tons of cargo on board. From now on the Turkish aircraft will be present at Budapest Airport not only during the early hours of Saturday, but also on Thursday afternoons, which is expected to change to Thursdays and Sundays with the onset of the summer schedule.
The Turkish carrier is primarily transporting textiles and electronic goods from the Far East to Hungary, and taking pharmaceutical products, machine parts and electronic goods manufactured in Hungary on the return journey.
The company plans to increase the frequency of its cargo flights to Budapest from two to three a week, and to replace the Airbus A310 with a larger A330F type aircraft. This would increase capacity, currently at 38 tons, to 64 tons per flight. Levend Arisoy, general manager for Turkish Cargo in Hungary, is optimistic. “We see great potential and excellent opportunities in the Hungarian market. Hopefully we will be able to expand to three flights a week in the near future, and can fly the Budapest route with a much larger aircraft. We would really like to turn the cargo flight between Budapest and Istanbul into a daily one by 2015.”
Turkish Cargo appeared on the Hungarian market last July, initially with one flight a week commuting between Budapest and Istanbul. The airline transported approximately 1500 tons of cargo between Hungary and Turkey in the space of six months, thereby becoming the most dynamically developing new cargo airline at Budapest Airport last year.
