The Öresund region, which includes the portions of eastern Denmark and southernmost Sweden near the Öresund waterway (“The Sound”), is Scandinavia’s largest logistics centre and one of the 5-7 largest in northern Europe. With SEK 170 billion in revenue and 77,000 employees, the logistics sector in the Öresund region is comparable to those of Paris, London, Rotterdam or Hamburg. This is clear from a report covering the period 1998-2004 produced by Roskilde University in Denmark on behalf of the network organisation Øresund Logistics.
Overall, the Öresund region has a strong position in northern Europe in terms of goods transport to and from different regions. Read more (in Danish): Godstransportssektorns Udvikling Øresundsregionen; Povl A. Hansen and Göran Serin, 2006.
The role of Malmö Airport in the Öresund region
The long-term vision is that Malmö Airport should be the obvious choice as a cargo airport in the region. There are concrete plans for continued expansion, which will have a major impact on the number of jobs in the region and on the airport. A fully expanded future air cargo centre could be up to 30,000 sq m in size and employ several hundred people.
This expansion began as early as 2000, when the Öresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark was inaugurated. As a consequence, the logistics company TNT expanded its operations at the airport. UPS moved from Copenhagen Airport in Denmark to Malmö Airport, and Martinair Cargo established its Scandinavian hub there when the bridge became a reality. Since the Öresund Bridge went into service in 2000, air cargo volume to and from Malmö Airport has multiplied seven times to 43,300 tonnes in 2007. In 2010, the airport handled 33,000 tonnes of air cargo.
To implement its expansion plans in the cargo field, Malmö Airport is now beginning to develop a cargo centre together with Nordic Airport Properties (NAP). This company is a partnership between Swedavia, former LFV − the State enterprise that operates the major Swedish airports − and Airis Holding. A fully expanded future cargo centre could be up to 30,000 sq m in size and employ several hundred people. Aside from a cargo terminal, the project will include parking stands for aircraft, access roads and technical upgrading of instrument landing systems.