Budapest airport becomes biggest distribution hub for Temu and Shein packages arriving in EU

Budapest's Liszt Ferenc International Airport has become a regional logistics hub for parcels from the Far East, with close to a hundred million arriving by air annually, according to an article in 24.hu.

The paper has learned from the National Tax Office (NAV) that in 2021, a total of about 14 million parcels arrived from non-EU countries (of which 1.2 million were destined for Hungary, while 12.9 million went elsewhere in the EU), but by 2024 this number had gradually grown to an astonishing level: in the first nine months of the year, a total of more than 95 million such parcels transited Ferihegy airport, but only 11 million of these were destined for Hungarian recipients, the rest were sent to other countries. The vast majority of the parcels come from Temu and Shein, which have taken the European market by storm.

Budapest Airport CEO Kam Jandu told 24 that in 2023, more than 200,000 tonnes of air cargo were handled at the Ferihegy cargo terminal, which is an increase of almost 50 percent compared to 2019, while global air cargo volumes last year averaged the same as in 2019. "The process of Budapest Airport becoming a major distribution hub in Central and Eastern Europe really gained momentum in 2020, but it has been a long process overall, and is the result of about 10 years of work," József Kossuth, the cargo-director of the company recently bought back by the state, told the newspaper.

Experts argue that the geographical location of Budapest provides a very strong basis for the development of the role of a distribution hub. They explain that the relative proximity of Hungary eliminates the need to transport goods two more hours by air from Asia to a Western European airport and then another 16-24 hours by road, making it possible to distribute them directly from Budapest. Another source of the paper, however, believes that "there must have been a huge lobbying effort behind Far Eastern online retailers choosing Hungary" which fits perfectly into the Hungarian government's strategy of "Eastern opening".

The appearance of Temu and Shein in Hungary has also caused a huge chaos among parcel operators recently, with Packeta and Sameday both becoming paralysed by the amount of packages, while profit margins on these packages are very small.

According to 24.hu, Budapest becoming a logistics hub and this being further bolstered by the increased number of parcels from the Far East, mainly benefits those who are in this business, such as Waberer's Group, which was recently purchased the Prime Minister's son-in-law, István Tiborcz. The company is currently building a logistics base for the Hungarian postal service, for example, which promises to be a great help in handling the massive volume of parcels coming in.