DHL Global Forwarding and Fraport, the owner and operator of Frankfurt Airport (FRA), have begun construction on a new air freight center at the airport’s CargoCity South.
The new facility, which is being built on the 55,000m2 property, will take about 12 months to complete and will primarily handle air freight for DHL’s German and international customers. It will also manage charter flights with its in-house service provider StarBroker.
The new cargo center and office complex, which will be inaugurated in mid-2025, will partly supplement the existing airport location and provide room for the new StarBroker European headquarters of DHL Global Forwarding.
Tobias Schmidt, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Europe, commented, “Located in the heart of Europe, Frankfurt Airport is of central importance as an international hub for our global air freight network. We’re very pleased that we were able to develop a larger, more sustainable site in close cooperation with Fraport. The newly created space will enable us to handle greater transport volumes for our customers even more quickly and efficiently.”
Construction of the state-of-the-art cargo center represents a further milestone in the successful development of Frankfurt Airport as a cargo and air freight hub. The new building at CargoCity South will provide 24,500m2 of new hall space and 3,000m2 of flexible office and social space. The new complex also includes adequately dimensioned freight yards, 25 truck parking spaces and 185 car parking spaces.
Upon completion, the hall will have a total of 54 gates and cross-docks with generously dimensioned driving and shunting areas and additional, separate outdoor parking for trucks.
“Today’s groundbreaking of this first-class air cargo center is part of the continuous development of Frankfurt Airport as Europe’s leading air freight hub,” explained Anke Giesen, executive director, retail and real estate, Fraport. “This building will meet the strictest ecological and economic requirements for modern freight handling facilities. As such, it will put our future tenant DHL Global Forwarding in the best position to take its air freight business to the next level.”