United Parcel Service (UPS) formally opened the $135 million expansion of its European express package air hub at Cologne/Bonn airport last week, amid signals from a German state premier that the government will back its desire to extend its night-flight clearance for the long term.
Like all express freight air hubs, operations at UPS’s Cologne/Bonn centre take place in the middle of the night. Currently 31 aircraft serve UPS each night in Cologne – ranging from Boeing MD-11s to Fokker F27s – arriving each night between 23:00 and 01:00, and departing between 03:00 and 05:00.
Central to the expansion – which gives the hub the capability to handle 110,000 packages an hour (over 30 a second) – is a new facility that doubles the size of UPS’s operating area to 75,500m2 (813,000ft2), and which comprises an automated express package sorting process.
It is designed to accommodate two further growth phases to increase the flow to 165,000 packages an hour.
However, although UPS received a guarantee from the local federal state North Rhine Westphalia in 2000 that the airport would have 24h operations, this was a 15-year pledge that is due to expire at the end of 2015. UPS executives appear relaxed about the nine years remaining. “Nowhere has long-term guarantees for night operations,” says David Abney, president of UPS International.
However, with rival package carrier DHL poised to relocate its European hub from Brussels to Leipzig/Halle in eastern Germany after receiving a 30-year night-flight guarantee, observers believe UPS would be keen to secure a similar pledge for Cologne/Bonn as it prepares its growth plan.
“We think we’ll be able to work out an agreement to extend our 24h approval at Cologne/Bonn,” says Abney, who points to the €85 million ($103 million) invested by the airport to mitigate the environmental impact of night-time operations in the surrounding residential areas.
This view was supported by a guest politician at the official opening event, Jurgen Rüttgers, who is the prime minister of North Rhine Westphalia.
Pledging his support for UPS at Cologne/Bonn, Rüttgers promised the “legal conditions” (extended night flight approval) to safeguard the company’s long-term presence at Cologne/Bonn.
MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / COLOGNE
Source: Flight International
