http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/070806/1502156.html?.v=1
FedEx to build new hub in Germany
Monday August 6, 12:36 pm ET
FedEx Express will build a new ramp and sorting facilities at the Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany in 2010, the company said Monday.
The new 164,000-square-foot hub will replace FedEx Express' existing German gateway at Frankfurt's airport.
A subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX - News), which is based in Memphis, FedEx Express will develop the hub with Cologne's airport operator, which will share in the costs, says Denise Lauer, a spokesman for FedEx Express. FedEx and Flughafen Köln/Bonn GmbH have signed a cooperation agreement. Lauer declined to disclose terms of the deal. Construction costs were also unavailable.
FedEx said rapidly growing demand for express services in Germany and Eastern Europe have prompted the company to build the new hub.
"In order to be able to provide the highest possible quality in all our services to our customers worldwide, we need to expand our hub capacities," said Michael Mühlberger, vice president of operations for FedEx Express Central & Eastern Europe. "Due to a potential ban on night flights, the Frankfurt/Main location cannot provide FedEx with long-term planning reliability."
FedEx will maintain a presence in Frankfurt in the future. However, the company said that Cologne's airport holds a number of benefits, including air traffic capacity of 698,000 tons a year. The second-largest cargo airport in Germany is also close to highways, railway transportation and the river Rhine.
Published August 6, 2007 by the Memphis Business Journal