millions of metric tons of cargo enter Germany every year via this Runway some of them are even alive be it whole herds of cattle or luxury cars there's nothing at leipzigal airport that is not packed loaded and then shipped around the world be it flying giants from the old Soviet times or modern logistic jets in Leipzig it's not where you come from that counts but what's on board the former provincial airport has become Europe's fourth largest cargo Hub there is no ban on night flights which is a blessing for any logistics company this is the only way overnight cargo can work once around the world within 24 hours about 500 000 Parcels leave Leipzig every single night for this to run smoothly all the airport stations have to function like clockwork [Music] foreign airport covers a total area of 1 400 hectares its location could hardly be better directly at the a14a9 highway Junction this makes the airport interesting for more than just holiday air travel and scheduled flights it's especially interesting for logistic Airlines the largest cargo planes from all over the world land here every minute up to 200 a day the tarmac is shared by several large logistics companies including DHL between them they handle roughly 1.6 million metric tons of cargo per year foreign [Music] the vast majority of cargo passes through this Logistics Center Express shipments Parcels from online shopping or International letters these seemingly trivial things create a lot of work at Germany's second largest Logistics Airport [Music] we start our journey on the Southeastern side of this huge site the airport's own cargo Department poor ground is based here the staff are experts in cargo and aircraft handling no matter which airline is at the door no matter what is being loaded the logistics service provider Port ground loads and unloads cargo Around the Clock around 20 percent of the cargo handled in Leipzig passes through Port ground just under 400 women and men work here in a three shift system their next job this Boeing 747 from the Russian city of krasnoyarsk has to fly back to Moscow later today and then onto Singapore the team on the ground is therefore racing against the clock the plane is secured before it is unloaded like any aircraft on the ground the cargo jumbo needs a gangway and external power from a ground power unit or GPU for short [Music] the crew's most important piece of equipment is the high loader carriers like these can move up to 20 metric tons a high loader like this is indispensable especially for aircraft types that do not have a tailgate or nose hatch at ground level but are unloaded at the top like this 747 okay safety is the team's highest priority and there is a clear set of guidelines for loading and unloading Thomas Faber manages the cargo operations team or cargo Ops for short we always unload from the back first and then move forward bit by bit so that the plane doesn't tip over in the event that we do have something really heavy with us at some point there's no danger the plane tipping down schedule is tight the men have only 60 minutes to unload the plane the 747 can carry 139 metric tons of cargo [Music] mainly classic mail one of these pallets contains more Parcels than a delivery vehicle on the road could hold [Music] the pallets are always between one and a half and five metric tons on average it's hard to say everything can be found here as the bigger ones we have two 20-foot pallets inside they weigh up to six or seven metric tons the heavier they are the more dangerous it becomes it can get a bit tricky when the staff pulls them off the dollies here and they are really heavy so you need more people or strong guys who can pull the pallets onto them up there everything is controlled electronically down here you need muscle power these dollies are the ground Cruise pack mules nothing would get done without them these are the small things that make working with heavy pallets even possible all surfaces are equipped with 360 degree rotating rollers no matter whether they're loaded on the high loader or on dollies this is the only way to handle pallets that weigh tons [Music] the men use hand signals to communicate [Music] the team is so well coordinated that the ground time of a 747 including the time needed for unloading and reloading averages out at no more than two and a half hours I rarely see what's in there while we load or unload that doesn't matter to me it only matters to me if we're handling dangerous goods or things that are only transported via cargo planes because the pilots need to be able to access them during the flight if it's not a dangerous good I don't even get to see it and as you can see it's all wrapped very tightly from here the jumbo Jets cargo will continue on its Journey around the world because leipzigala airport is mainly a hub some of the shipments go directly to a neighboring company here at the airport [Music] HL Express has its headquarters on the site's western side this is the largest logistics company at the airport but it's not until night falls that things really start to kick off at dhl's European hub The Hub control center is the distribution center for the flying parcel carriers or nerve center so to speak [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Sorting Center is one floor down the belts here start up at around 10 pm every night because you have to rely on overnight cargo if you want to stay ahead of the game in the express business orders placed today are delivered tomorrow and that across the globe more than 150 000 packages pass through the center every hour in concrete terms shipments are unloaded assigned to the next plane and then sent on their way the hubs control center is the epicenter for everything the employees coordinate dhl's pan-european flight volume which is more than 23 000 flights every year serves 220 countries and regions weather data is particularly important to the controllers up here foreign [Music] ER manages the Hub control center here is all the data combined that's important to us for making decisions we have the Sorting data from the Sorting plant we have weather data we have the radar data from the aircraft we have data on the status of the loading and unloading and we even have the news running because we also need to know if weather or political phenomena will affect us a storm cell is approaching the airport this very moment this is bad news for March Telsa and his team so it does currently look like it's passing within the 20 kilometer radius but I think it's more up here now in this corner good fine okay the regulations clearly state that flight operations and all loading work on the aircraft must cease immediately should a thunderstorm pass over the airport the consequences cancellations and delays and nobody here wants those the current situation is that a storm cellar is heading towards us towards Leipzig these are the red colored fields at the moment it looks as though it's going to pass only touching us very lightly so we might be lucky if it doesn't we may have to ask the team to stop loading and unloading on the tarmac straight away our employees are of the utmost importance to us and getting them to safety is always our priority the weather in Saxony will be the source of a lot of stress for DHL employees tonight especially for the crews on the tarmac the DHL Hub in Leipzig is the company's largest worldwide around 75 planes land and takeoff from here daily to fly at night had a large impact on the decision to set up shore here in 2005. after all the Core Business doesn't get going until after dark nothing happens at the airport without the ramp Crews they load and unload the planes has been working night shifts for more than 13 years a triple seven is coming from Brussels now it's expected in about 10 minutes we'll do that as a turnaround which then goes to Cincinnati at 305 A.M we'll fill her up right away the Boeing triple seven arrives at the airport on time but the weather is getting worse the weather makes an already tight schedule even tighter because the crew wants to be ready to reload the plane before the thunderstorm arrives [Applause] before unloading serkon performs a visual safety check on the plane he's also checking to see whether the crew at the previous airport did everything properly [Applause] I can show you here this flap we open the flap first so we can open this door this is a cargo door and you can see that here too of course the important thing is to check if any screws protrude that shouldn't happen but it happens a lot the screws become loose from the vibrations and have to get fixed immediately second has to perform the check thoroughly even if he's short on time the crew now has 48 minutes left to unload the aircraft which is what this display is for at the moment we have 83.8 tons of cargo on board and they have to come out it's now one o'clock in the morning [Applause] seven also has to be unloaded from a lofty height due to its design on average the people load 500 000 consignments in this way every night that's more than 2 000 metric tons in total the majority of the containers are filled with your classic parcels and packages normally the standard turnaround time is 120 to 130 minutes this is doable even Pleasant if you know what you're doing and are working alongside an experienced team but sometimes when we're working with special engines or very special cargo like animals it can get a bit stressful and we won't keep to this time [Applause] even though the staff is racing against the clock safety on the tarmac has top priority especially when it comes to operating the high loader [Music] I have to make sure that there aren't any people between the dollars or the containers or wait for our supervisor to sickle up to me that the area is clear or that I can lift up the high loader each pallet from the plane has a specific destination zakan can tell what this is by reading from the so-called ramp management system or RMS for short this palette is Cargo coming from Brussels and it's going to Singapore and the flight to Singapore leaves at 7 15 a.m tomorrow morning and the first or second in the middle AMX is Leipzig cargo that's driven to the Sorting hole first where it'll be sorted two minutes start loading the plane [Music] to level 11 minutes then I need to have finished unloading we'll manage of course it in less than two hours the fully loaded plane has to leave for Cincinnati in the U.S customers are waiting for their Parcels there too meanwhile the storm front continues to approach Leipzig Airport in the meantime there is new water for the jet the triple seven holds almost 150 liters of fresh water well done let's have a five minute break get something to drink and then get back to work while the crew takes a break the thousands of parcels from the belly of the jet continue their journey by going directly to the DHL sorting Center and that's because hardly any Parcels stay here in Leipzig every single Consignment has to be reassigned and sent on its onward Journey on the right plane after all Leipzig is just a hub the Sorting Center's offloading area it's all about unloading here these containers have arrived in Leipzig just a few minutes ago the floor is also equipped with small wheels which makes it easier to work with the containers some of which waste several metric tons the challenge for men and machine is to unload every single Consignment from every container and then assign it directly to the container with the correct destination Airport and this is all done under time pressure especially with larger packages like these the logistical effort is enormous foreign [Music] we're here on the third level at 12.6 meters and up here is where our LAX system is lag stands for large automatic conveying system this is a system that allows us to transport heavy lift Goods with dimensions of one by one by two meters with a total weight of 170 kilograms automatically the logistics people used to carry heavy packages manually from A to B we can now load directly from the container using the forklift truck place the consignment inside an empty tray send the fully loaded tray up to the 12.6 meter level distributed automatically and then bring it back directly to the destination container on the ground floor where we can just load it again well to transport even large packages around the globe within 24 hours you need a lot of Manpower on the ground floor but the floors above us are virtually deserted the Lac system for bulky Goods has a great Advantage it shortens the Journey of the packages enormously [Music] this means that we used to need almost 30 percent of the staff for ultimately 10 percent of the shipment volume during the process we had a very long transport time which was up to 50 minutes and that's a relatively long time within a warehouse that's 400 meters long our average transport time across all three terminals now averages out at nine minutes in total this is an enormous Advantage for a hub-like Leipzig no matter where the bulky goods come from whether they're car parts from China or furniture from India they're all automatically assigned to their new destination and this happens using the camera systems that can scan the packages several times on their way through the terminal these are automatic reading systems that scan the Consignments from five different angles you can imagine these are cameras that illuminate the Consignments on all sides and no matter where the barcode with all the consignment information is printed we can see it however bulky Goods only make up a small percentage of the cargo volume by far the largest part of the work consists of classic small Consignments each of these boxes goes on a turbulent Journey a journey that starts in the arms of an employee unloading the container this way a good 3 000 shipments pass through the hands of a package sorter per shift an average of 500 000 packages travel through the terminal every night along a conveyor belt that is 46 kilometers long but even this number is surpassed during holidays [Music] it always depends on the day of the week or the month that we do it of course but we have a forecast for this year for the peak period we'll have 730 000 shipments to distribute in one night and that's what makes it so complex we have to get all the goods of these 2 000 metric tons that we move every day into the warehouse incredibly quickly and then get them out again just as quickly so that the planes don't miss their connecting flights each of these little packages has a place booked on board a plane that has to leave Leipzig tonight so it's extremely important that each shipment goes the correct way before it's Reloaded [Music] during the day the logistics Center is quieter but the airport's own port ground Logistics is still busy working with very special planes il-76td isn't loaded with your run-of-the-mill everyday cargo it's come from Africa with field post from German soldiers stationed in Mali the plane itself was developed as a military transporter for the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and the Russians still build them today the technology is robust and reliable so Landings on gravel runways for example represent no problem for this old lady [Music] opens hydraulically the 20 meter long cargo hold has a capacity of 235 cubic meters and can even accommodate tanks and helicopters the German Army regularly Charters civil cargo planes to transport material [Music] after its long journey on board the illusion the cargo is then unloaded and ready to be transported by Road [Music] as far as Port ground's Logistics experts are concerned this is special origin cargo but there are no special safety precautions and it's treated just like any other cargo at the other end of the airport is the veterinary border inspection post ranita tsikat is the resident vet and cares for living cargo here and she specially loves working with young animals all life animals arrive via the veterinary border inspection post from dogs to cats day old chicks horses cattle and not forgetting insects and earthworms even the four-legged passengers use the classic cargo planes the transport boxes have to fit in the high loaders and the dollies just like all other cargo Goods all animals Landing in Leipzig are taken directly from the plane to see the medical officers [Music] I have come from Bahrain these are 22 young Arabian and English thoroughbreds traveling onto Ireland and England where they will race again first of all checks the horse's Health but she also checks the animal's papers to see that their identity is correct some animals are chipped horses have so-called equine passports the people accompanying the horses are not necessarily associated with the same stable as the horses rather they fly there three weeks beforehand get to know the animals build a bond with them and stay with them during transport from departure to arrival in their new destination 204-legged animals are checked into Leipzig each year and the trend is rising [Music] the staff in Leipzig is certified to handle all types of aircraft and any kind of cargo including large animals today more than 100 cattle are checked in they've come from Saxony and are about to embark on a long journey to Kuwait what many of us can only dream of is now coming true for our four-legged friends a flight in the legendary Boeing 747 just not in the first class cabin whether it be packages bulky Goods or large animals all types of cargo are placed onto the same floor pallets so that the wooden boxes can be maneuvered into the loading space just as easily as any other Goods the 747 has a maximum takeoff weight of more than 440 metric tons so a small herd of cattle is no problem for the jumbo [Applause] back at the DHL Hub it's two in the morning but nobody here is thinking about sleep quite the opposite in fact now that the packages have been offloaded and resorted it's time for them to be reloaded the second part of their evening trip around the globe foreign is the senior supervisor for reloading poor dating how containers are loaded onto upcoming flights on tonight's shift the current cargo volume is quite something our reload averages are between 15 000 and 20 000 Consignments coming down of the conveyor belts here and the ncy the thing we're loading with a forklift has an average of between one thousand and five hundred and two thousand Consignments on board there are 465 000 shipments on the schedule to be loaded here today across the entire Hub we have until 5 15 in the morning to do this that's what we're looking at for today which is a lot for a Monday dark stuff the Sorting Center is split into two stations at the offload station the parcels are transported across conveyor belts to their reload stations where they are assigned to their new container and new destination this is the reload station that mainly handles Parcels for Asia namely China and Japan you could say this is the focus for most of our cargo we have destinations like Benelux Brussels Luxembourg Amsterdam and Basel Islander which is up north in Sweden so it's quite Multicultural Multicultural Madeleine Tolman also checks to see that hazardous goods are loaded correctly finding the biggest issue is with the lithium batteries and we deal with them every night and it's common knowledge by now that they are a fire hazard obviously that is why these pieces of cargo have to be easily accessible imagine if it were to burst into flames and it's at the very back of the container you'd have to unload all of the cargo before you can get to the item that's on fire on every process runs on a tight schedule the offload and reload teams have to work together closely of course the processes are aided by computers here I can see the entire sorting system so to speak the individual areas the cargo flow there or the acceptance rate at a shoot this also lets me see whether I need to support areas either in terms of persona or by taking destinations of people's hands the whole thing really thrives on teamwork however there are also packages that cannot be transported on any of the belt systems due to their size this is what's called non-conveyable cargo [Music] down here you can see what we call the ncy area which is for the non-conveyable cargo the pieces of cargo that have to be loaded by forklift because they are either too big or too heavy or both the silhouette of the container is always made to fit the respective airplane in this case it's the Boeing 747 Madeleine tulman and her colleagues load and secure every single container by hand the load must not be able to slide around while the plane is in the air in a worst case scenario this could lead to the plane crashing these containers are already leaving the Sorting Center they make their way onto the airport's Towing tractors or dollies via the ramps but a few things still need to happen before the containers can disappear into the belly of the plane the staff at dhl's HUB control center are loading each and every plane before it departs and they're doing so using a computer is responsible for stowing exact amounts into the different parts of the plane it's a bit like a Tetris game the only difference being that a mistake can have severe consequences this is a plane due to fly to Madrid later on it is an Airbus a300 and my job now is to plan how the cargo that's been made available to us will go on to this flight the loading plans drawn up here serve as strict guidelines for the cruise that will load the aircraft further down the line there are specific guidelines regarding the payload for each type of aircraft in the middle here is where the wing is and that's where the plane is most stable this means that I can use this area to Stow very heavy containers I see the maximum weight for this position here which is more than four metric tons but it's a different story here where I can only plan for 2090 kilograms it's normally taboo but in some cases the logistics professionals want to know what's inside these boxes we transport quite a lot of dangerous goods in this case it's Roi that means radioactive class seven I think about how I'm going to place them given that the pilot won't want that right behind their seats the whole flight Class 7 radioactive substances include for example drugs created from nuclear medicine and also flammable cargo always needs to be stowed correctly then do you um if it catches fire while the plane is in the air there's an automatic extinguishing system on the lower deck if I were to place it on the main deck instead then the crew wouldn't be able to get to it there would be no chance for them to put out the fire as with all activities here in Leipzig flight safety is Paramount for the load controllers in less than two hours this Boeing triple seven will make its way across the Atlantic to the U.S however before loading the plane still needs to be refueled the kerosene flows via the tanker's hoses into the wing tanks of the aircraft a maximum of 90 metric tons with this and fully loaded it can travel more than 9000 kilometers is in charge of the team loading the plane our next job is to load the plane we have just under 84 metric tons of payload going to Cincinnati the whole thing takes about an hour an hour 20. the payload capacity of the maximum three metric tons so tonight the plane is not even fully booked with little more than 80 metric tons of packages and Parcels [Music] the only problem for the team tonight is the weather there's a thunderstorm coming in the next 20 to 25 minutes we have to get going and finish up before it arrives so let's go guys regulations clearly state that any work on the tarmac masseuse should a thunderstorm pass directly over the airport I've just been told that the storm is now 15 kilometers away so we will have to stop if it gets within 10 kilometers we really do need to hurry they're running out of time to load the plane the rain front is racing toward the airport in a worst case scenario sarcon and his crew will have to stop what they're doing this could delay the plane taking off which in turn could delay the delivery of the packages on the other side of the world unfortunately we needed to stop working the storm came quickly within five kilometers of us that's why we had to go inside when the storm has passed we'll continue I'm optimistic we're definitely going back out there so we'll make it on time plan is to leave in 45 minutes it's pouring down with rain and it's for much longer than expected but employee safety has to come first which means that on this occasion the packages will reach their recipients a little later than they usually do [Music] [Music] it's a new day at the Port ground Logistics site there are extra large aircraft tow tractors here for large jumbos the SUVs of the tractor world so to speak and the next plane is already waiting this Boeing 747-8f of the Russian airline airbridge cargo when it's fully loaded it weighs up to 447 metric tons to move such a giant of the air you also need a small Giant on the ground the goldhofa ast-1f-600 the 600 stands for the amount of horsepower the tractor has a hydrostatic drive that converts the plane's mechanical Power into hydraulic power using a pump this means that it starts up smoothly [Music] Mike haza is the expert for these Giants he controls the aircraft tractor and thus also controls the jumbo jet for a short time he uses this splint to make sure that both machines survive the so-called pushback without sustaining any damage I cut off the Pilot's ability to steer so they can't steer while the nose wheel is clamped if they did they'd break my tractor the tractor has a tear weight of 26 metric tons as much as 18 Porsche 911s so Mike has to maneuver carefully I try my best not to hit the nose wheel and break it especially with the 747 for example you only have this much room left and right for the arm between the tires truly piggybacks the jumbo the tractor's hydraulic gripper arms are equipped with rollers so they slide under the wheels of the 747 the mechanism can lift up to 50 metric tons that's enough for the Jumbo's comparatively light nose the 747 could also get to the taxiway on its own but a pushback with the towing tractor is both safer and faster [Music] the aircraft is ready for takeoff the engine fans are already turning the tractor lowers the nose wheel of the Boeing again it's only when Mike releases the steering for the landing gear signaled by the splint with the red flag that the pilot is able to set off on his own [Music] foreign this Antonov an-124 100 is maneuvered with a different Towing method due to its design it has a double nose gear so no Towing tractor can just grab it and piggyback it this is where the classic tow bar comes into play it makes maneuvering a little more complicated because the bar forms another movable joint similar to reversing with a trailer [Music] the tractor Crews represent yet another important Link in the chain of leipzig's flight operations they ensure that air traffic runs smoothly and that cargo makes its way around the world [Music] Back In the Hall of the airport's own port ground the cargo handling experts here Focus primarily on larger General cargo that is anything that does not fit into containers these wooden boxes contain components from a German car parts supplier gearboxes steering wheels shock absorbers job is to ensure that each crate is waterproof washed down and loaded onto pallets Sven Augustine makes use of a very special tool because nothing would be a box on the plane this is Anchor this is a contour Arc I use this to check whether the Cargo Falls within the Contour so that the PMC pallets won't get stuck anywhere in the position where it is pushed for each aircraft type there is a contour Arc that replicates the shape of the fuselage's hold like a preformed measuring stick foreign next the workers wrap the crates in waterproof plastic wrap because before it goes on the plane and even after it's unloaded the cargo is often left out in the open for a short time each pallet has a PMC number for identification [Music] so that there's no confusion in the back with the units I write down the numbers that the unit we have built really goes where it is supposed to go our Cargo Office puts that number into the system afterwards which allows it to track its exact location on its route from A to B nobody here wants car parts to go astray with the help of The Lift Truck the employees now Place transport Nets over the crates the boxes are only fixed to the aluminum pallets using the Nets on which they rest these pallets are later anchored to the floor of the aircraft foreign it's my job to make sure that the cargo doesn't slip and I'll sign for it afterwards saying that I'm 100 sure that the cargo has been secured this is because slipping cargo during flights has already led to crashes of cargo planes on several occasions so the men carry a big responsibility [Music] final weight of each individual pallet minus the transport trolley using scales embedded in the floor this information is also enormously important for flight safety this is the weighing tag with the important data such as the PMC number as mentioned earlier so there's no confusion the destination Hong Kong weights building Leipzig lej flight number my signature for the correct build for the correct weight under no circumstances must the maximum takeoff weight of the aircraft be exceeded errors could cause the plane to crash for the car parts today the journey continues to East Asia the issue of safety is taken seriously here in Leipzig so seriously in fact that even the German Army is controlled this is a shipment of food for the German Armed Forces base in Mali preserves sauces and spices the XXL X-Ray Scanner is specially designed for bulky Goods the German Army shipment is loaded via civilian airport and flown on a civilian aircraft this elaborate Security check is also essential for flight safety to ensure that International cargo air traffic runs smoothly there is another aspect that is of great importance in addition to safety almost in secrecy the Customs authorities direct their gaze at everything that arrives in Leipzig officers here combat illegal animal trafficking or narcotic smuggling the bulk of the work however is not quite so spectacular because what is mainly checked is the correct handling of customs duties and import sales tax foreign so we basically checked the plausibility of the individual Customs declarations in relation to the consigner and the consignee whether the Customs value the kilo number itself and of course what's inside the package is in order [Music] officials can view cargo documents before the planes land allowing them to pick out individual shipments for later inspection DHL even has its own department for this where it holds back shipments for inspection depending on the request of customs with different status an example of a control that we could order would be if someone declared 500 grams of gold jewelry with a value of 150 Euros of course this would make us suspicious because the value would not match the specified quantity in addition Leipzig is the main hub for online products from non-eu countries Customs officials seize tens of millions of euros worth of counterfeit products every year on the northern part of the airport there is the maintenance terminal of the Volga Nipper group cargo Specialists that owns a fleet of the legendary Antonov an-124 [Music] of aircraft maintenance today he supervises the inspection and engine control of a plane in general must be inspected maintained each 500 flight hours so here we have a heaviest maintenance for this aircraft which must be performed each two years so it means most of the frame of the aircraft must be inspected maintained all the systems systems must be checked developed as a military transport plane in the Soviet Union with a takeoff weight of more than 400 metric tons the giant aircraft was considered the largest aircraft in the world in the mid-1980s today it still ranks among the top 10 in terms of payload and cargo volume after the fall of the Iron Curtain the planes were transferred to private cargo companies 12 of them now fly for Volga Nipper group the abbreviation 100 stands for a series of very special planes its construction began in Soviet times but with its disintegration the factory and the half-finished planes lay idle for years they were not completed until after the year 2000. [Applause] the cargo hold has a volume of more than one thousand cubic meters 120 metric tons of payload are allowed during the Cold War these were often tanks and helicopters but today mainly civil XXL cargo [Music] hold contains a total of four electric winches with a total lifting capacity of up to 30 metric tons [Music] it's 36 meters long uh 640 to 4 40. so it's more than enough to take most of the cargos which uh needed to be transported let's the vehicles lorries satellites rockets and so on inspection also includes a test of the hydraulically liftable fuselage nose to open the nose we need 210 bars but in parallel we have 2K absorber outside the control of the system physically so it reports us everything is good what was once intended for tanks in the field is now considered a major Logistics Advantage the cargo area can be accessed directly from both the fuselage nose and the stern via dedicated ramps this is only possible thanks to the extra robust chassis especially when loading cars this makes the work much easier a small Fleet of luxury sedans thus fits easily into the antonov's cargo hold foreign [Music] is the cockpit some of the technology here is more than 40 years old the plane's cruising speed is around 800 kilometers per hour to cope with the old technology a slightly larger crew is needed than on modern jets [Music] two pilots Capitan and co-pilot so here we Navigator radio operator and two flight engineers a couple of systems are which are already modernized you can see this for example navigation system already new but here this is alt analog system was most of this equipment shows analog old analog system and this multitude of analog systems requires kilometers of cable this may seem archaic but the Antonov is a robust and reliable plane and since there are always two Aircraft engineers on board minor repairs can usually be carried out directly on site as part of the major inspection employees dismantle the antonov's four engines so you can see two engines of this aircraft already out they are located in the hangar so now you can see the preparation before removing all this pylon for the inspections and for some modifications in general it takes two days for one engine and depends on the team for sure if you have a lot of mechanics you can do it let's say in 24 hours the engine was specially developed for the Antonov an-124 its weight is 4 metric tons the engine and plane had their Maiden flight in 1982. so for such huge aircraft parts we must have powered enough engines this is a Ukrainian engines d18t uh with the maximum power on the takeoff mode 24 tons each this is enough for this aircraft which uh very close to 400 tons take over it the lottery of d18t is a three shaft turbofan engine and is still one of the most powerful in the world [Music] its rotor diameter is 2.3 meters on the tarmac mechanics are inspecting the aircraft's wing suspension the Antonov is a so-called shoulder Wing aircraft countless of these steel bolts connect the wings to the fuselage and each one is checked with good maintenance the an-124 has many years of service ahead of it the XXL freighter is and continues to be a very special plane but there's an even bigger one [Music] a true giant of the Skies regularly visits Leipzig airport the Antonov an-225 Maria essentially the big sister of the an-124 it's considered the longest and heaviest aircraft in the world 84 meters long and 88 meters wide the maximum takeoff weight is 640 metric tons a world record to date the nose gear can be retracted and the entire front lowered it is therefore possible to access the 43 meter long cargo hold directly this time the 1 200 cubic meters of cargo space are fully loaded with Corona lateral flow tests the cargo area can hold 250 metric tons of payload this is enough to fill a warehouse almost to capacity but the Antonov can transport cargo not only in the belly [Music] it can also lift more than 100 metric tons on its back because that's what it was once designed for in Soviet times it was supposed to piggyback the Russian space shuttle buron however the space program was never completed until recently the civilian aircraft flew for the Ukrainian logistics company Antonov Airlines in February 2022 the only existing an-225 was destroyed in a Russian bombing raid during the war against Ukraine [Music] Leipzig airport a modern hub for Global cargo traffic and future prospects could hardly be better because the amount of work increases year upon year rising to the top of the cargo airports in Europe is a clear objective for the logistics companies here the airport which was unheard of in the industry just a few years ago has already experienced tremendous growth Around the Clock the people here give their all to ensure that customers all over the world get their goods on time anything that fits through a loading hatch is loaded onto the plane no matter what it is in figures this means 1.3 million metric tons of cargo and more than 60 000 takeoffs and landings per year the trend is constantly Rising [Music]