Swissport Deutschland GmbH (Swissport) has successfully completed its acquisition of a 74.9% stake in Flughafen Düsseldorf Cargo GmbH (Flughafen Düsseldorf) for the creation of a cargo joint venture which will operate under the name of Swissport DUS Cargo Services GmbH. The new partnership came into effect on August 17. The completion of the deal follows on from the signing of a binding agreement.
“To complement its strong organic growth, Swissport is pursuing an ambitious M&A agenda that includes being an active consolidator in the aviation services industry as well as entering into partnerships and joint ventures globally,” says Pablo von Siebenthal, Swissport’s Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions. “In our conversations with airports and airlines around the world we see great interest from them in either selling or partnering with us for their own ground or cargo handling operations. They realise that as the leading aviation services company in the world, Swissport is their best partner.”
“The start of our joint operations in Düsseldorf is a moment of joy for Swissport Germany,” says Bruno Stefani, Swissport’s CEO for Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. “It shows our commitment to the German market and solidifies our position in Düsseldorf and across Germany and sets the stage of further growth. Across Germany, Swissport supports airlines from all over the world with a wide range of services including ground services, cargo handling and aviation fuelling.”
Swissport has been driving consolidation since its foundation in 1996 and continues to shape the industry, exemplified by traditional take-overs like Aerocare with operations at 35 airports in Australia and in New Zealand in 2018 and the recent strategic acquisition of Alitalia’s ground handling unit at Rome-Fiumicino Airport in Italy in 2022. At the end of June 2023, the world’s leader in airport ground services and air cargo handling, with currently around 56,000 employees, was active at 294 airports in 44 countries on six continents.
