DHL's new European hub 'progressing well'
DHL has released a statement confirming that construction work at its European hub, which began at the start of 2006, is progressing well and is on schedule. Klaus Zumwinkel, the Chairman of the Board of Management at Deutsche Post World Net, briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Transportation Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee and Saxony Premier Georg Milbradt on the project’s progress during an on-site visit.
“The Leipzig/Halle hub will be a vital element within our company. Along with Hong Kong in Asia und Wilmington in the United States, it will be one of the three most important transfer locations in DHL’s global network,” Zumwinkel said. DHL plans to create 3,500 jobs by 2012.
It believes that other companies and service providers will then create an additional 7,000 jobs in the region as the result of such a project. Zumwinkel said: “By opening this important location to our Group and investing around *300 million, we are taking an important step to bolster the country’s new states and Germany as a business location.”
A total of 400 DHL employees are already working at the evolving hub, where structural work is almost finished. The hub will consist of a 48,000 square-metre distribution centre and an approximately 23,000 square-metre hangar. Installation of the operational equipment is scheduled to begin soon. Costing more than *70 million, the Dutch company Vanderlande will install sorting technology in the next few months.
DHL is also expanding its flight operations at the Leipzig/Halle airport. The current air routes to and from Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Warsaw, Kattowitz, Danzig, Nuremberg, Ostrau, Prague in the Czech Republic and East Midlands in England have been expanded to include Kiev. Copenhagen and Bergamo, in northern Italy, will be added as shipping airports on October 30, 2006. Following this, a total of 12 DHL planes will use the central German airport Monday through Friday.
