Foundation Stone Laid for Swissport Air Cargo Warehouse at Frankfurt Airport’s CargoCity South

State-of-the-art cargo facility to further strengthen Frankfurt’s position as a leading airfreight hub – New building to expand Swissport’s handling capacities by almost 50 per cent – Roof-mounted photovoltaics to generate over 1.5 million kWh of electricity yearly

Fraport AG and Swissport Cargo Services Deutschland GmbH today laid the foundation stone for Swissport’s new airfreight facility at Frankfurt Airport (FRA), marking another milestone in the future development of FRA as an airfreight location.

The new building at CargoCity South will expand Swissport’s handling capacities by almost 50 percent. The property meets every requirement for state-of-the-art airfreight handling. The warehouse concept includes a material handling system that allows containers and pallets to be automatically stored in and removed from the warehouse. Swissport is expanding its range of special temperature storage for customers from the pharmaceutical industry. The new cargo center will be fitted out in accordance with the strict IATA criteria and will be CEIV Pharma-certified after going into operation.

The roof of the freight hall will also be home to the first large-scale photovoltaic system at Frankfurt Airport. It will generate 1,550,000 kilowatt hours of electricity yearly – an amount that would power more than 450 four-person households for an entire year. With this move, Fraport is increasing its focus on the use of independently generated renewable energy to cover the electricity requirements of its home-base airport in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt Airport is seen around the world as a model of how to develop a successful logistics hub. Almost 50 percent of Germany’s airfreight volume is handled here – over two million metric tons in 2018. This places FRA in the global top ten. Felix Kreutel, Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Properties at Fraport AG, explained: “Fraport operates Europe’s largest cargo hub at Frankfurt Airport. We intend to write another chapter in this success story together with our long-standing customer Swissport. To achieve this, we are continuously optimizing our service and product range and offering intelligent infrastructure solutions for our customers.”

The new building at Frankfurt Airport will be Swissport’s fourth-largest cargo center worldwide. Up to 200,000 metric tons of airfreight for airline and shipping customers are expected to be handled here per year. Willy Ruf, Senior Vice President Central & Eastern Europe at Swissport, said during the foundation stone ceremony: “We are looking forward to offering our customers individual air cargo services at one of Europe’s most modern and sustainable airfreight facilities starting in the fall of 2020. Frankfurt Airport thus remains one of the most important airfreight locations in our global Swissport network.”

The building is scheduled to be completed and handed over to Swissport in the third quarter of 2020. The airfreight facility was designed by M&P Architekten, with building company Goldbeck acting as general contractor.

Facts and figures on the new air cargo warehouse:

- Capacity: over 200,000 metric tons per year
- Storage space: 17,000 square meters
- Office and communal space: 2,400 square meters
- Outside/maneuvering space: 12,500 square meters
- Temperature zones in the pharma center:
       - 1,300 square meters (15–25°C)
       - 280 square meters (2–8°C)
- 31 docks for trucks/vans, including five truck docks for ULD handling

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