Swissport International expands presence of its Air Cargo Services in Austria

Zurich/Graz, 14 July 2015 - Swissport International, the world’s leading provider of ground and air cargo services to the aviation industry, and Flughafen Graz Betriebs GmbH, have signed a Letter of Intent to form a joint venture with the aim of providing air cargo services at Graz Airport. The start of the operations of the joint venture Swissport Cargo Services Graz is planned for the beginning of 2016.

Swissport Cargo Services Graz will provide comprehensive cargo services at Graz Airport in Austria. The newly formed joint venture will handle approximately 10.000 tonnes of air cargo per year for its customers – airlines and freight-forwarders. Clients at Graz Airport will benefit from further improved quality standards paired with local know-how and established infrastructures. The operational setup will remain as it is.

A clear benefit of the new joint venture Swissport Cargo Services Graz for airlines and logistics companies is its location on the premises of the airport, thus offering direct access and handling facilities for air cargo. The existing customer base and the experienced staff add to this, making the new service provider Swissport Cargo Services Graz ideally equipped to offer its customers the best possible service.

“Over the last months, we have led intense talks with Swissport International in order to lift the future of the cargo business at Flughafen Graz onto an even better basis”, explain Dipl. Ing. Wolfgang Malik, Chairman of the Board of the Holding Graz, and Mag. Gerhard Widmann, Managing Director of Graz Airport. “Our aim was a close cooperation, which would lead to an expansion of cargo activities and the service offering as well as an improvement of the service quality, all of which would ultimately profit not only Graz Airport but also the economy of Styria. We are very happy that we have achieved our aim in the form of a joint venture with the world’s biggest service provider in the area of air cargo services.”

“We are proud partners in this joint venture”, said Philipp Joeinig, Executive Vice President Europe at Swissport International. “What makes this cooperation special is the fact that we can build on existing as well as future client relations in order to expand our cargo offering in Austria from Vienna to Graz and beyond that in the future. We are looking forward to working with Flughafen Graz Betriebs GmbH and its experienced and motivated staff to jointly providing best-of-breed cargo services to a growing number of clients in Austria.”


Swissport International Ltd. provides ground services for around 229 million passengers and handles 4.1 million tonnes of cargo a year on behalf of some 700 client-companies in the aviation sector. With a workforce of more than 60,000 personnel, Swissport is active at more than 270 stations in 48 countries across five continents, and generates consolidated operating revenue of CHF 3.0 billion. www.swissport.com

With approximately 900.000 passengers annually Airport Graz is the third biggest regional airport in Austria. Through its extensive line traffic with connections to important hubs such as Frankfurt, Vienna, Munich, Zurich, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Instanbul and Palma de Mallorca and a total of roughly 50 destinations during summer schedule, the airport has established itself as an important platform for the economy and tourism sectors not only in Styria but in neighbouring Kaerten, southern Burgenland and Slovenia. www.flughafen-graz.at