Cargolux last month operated six flights to transport hospital infrastructure to provide temporary healthcare facilities in Luxembourg City. The facility has space for 200 beds to help deal with the Covid-19 outbreak in the grand duchy.

The Port of Rotterdam is adding the Boxsinsider track and trace service to its Portbase digital infrastructure. The move, which will take place before the summer, will enable all parties to keep track of the cargo handled or to be received.

The Port of Zeebrugge and Nokia have completed the first phase of the port’s 5G-ready wireless network. The platform provides private connectivity to over 100 endpoints, allowing the port to track and manage connected devices across multiple applications in real time.

The World Health Organization has selected Liège Airport as one of eight distribution hubs for global medical supplies to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The airport will handle millions of medical masks and gloves, respirators, protective visors and test kits every month.

Amundi Real Estate has acquired a German logistics asset from Goodman Group for an undisclosed sum. The 130,435-square-metre warehouse is located in Lahr in the southwest of the country.

South Korea-based Vestas Investment Management has acquired a 123,000-square-metre distribution hub in central Poland from Invesco Real Estate on behalf of Korean institutional investors. The €71m purchase gives Vestas a total of €1bn of European logistics assets under management, €470m of which are managed together with Savills Investment Management.

Lufthansa is removing the seats from some of its aircraft in order to rapidly expand cargo capacity, while increasing freight connections with Chinese manufacturing hubs in cooperation with sister company Austrian Airlines. The German carrier is planning to operate 35 flights a week with repurposed passenger aircraft, carrying an additional 30 tons of cargo each.

Frankfurt Airport Cargo volume fell 17.4% year-on-year in March to 167,279 metric tons. Brussels Airport posted a 14.6% decline in the same month to 52,520 tons.

Amazon looks to be gearing up to launch its Amazon Air transport unit at Germany’s Leipzig Airport with the recruitment of an area manager. The company had previously announced the construction of a new facility that is due to be operational at the airport this year.

German rail track access charges are set to increase by 2.3% to €3.05 per kilometre in December at the start of the 2020/2021 timetable. The Network of European Railways says it is surprised by the price hike and has asked DB Netz and the federal government for talks on avoiding the increase.

Hapag-Lloyd reports that while the Covid-19 crisis is expected to significantly affect activities in May and June, declining fuel costs should lessen the financial effects of the pandemic. The company said large export volumes only began leaving European ports in mid-March and possible empty returns would only be felt later, while Asian ports were already staging a recovery.

Freight volume at the Port of Antwerp was up 4% year-on-year in the first quarter. The container trade saw rises of 9.5% in TEUs and 9.4% in tonnage, with marked increases in the volumes of pharmaceuticals and e-commerce goods. The port said the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the first quarter was limited, but added that it would become apparent in the second quarter with cancelled departures.

The French Haropa ports of Paris, Le Havre and Rouen felt the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, with container traffic down 23% year-on-year to 530,000 TEUs. Container ship stopovers declined by 16 to 156, while container river traffic on the Seine axis fell 13.5%.