DHL Leipzig hub to go into full operation end-March

The new EUR 300 million DHL Express European air hub at Leipzig/Halle airport will go into full operation at the end of March at the start of the summer 2008 flight schedule. The express operator is also planning to launch rail cargo feeder services between Leipzig and Frankfurt in the summer.

DHL has built up its intra-European flights to and from Leipzig over the last two years, and transferred its intercontinental flights from Cologne to Leipzig last October. In the final step, most of the Brussels hub flights will be moved there, leaving just a small number of services at the Belgian capital.

Once the Leipzig hub is fully operating, more than 60 DHL own or contracted planes will take off and land at the airport every night, and up to 2,000 tonnes of cargo will be handled daily. At present, about 1,800 staff handle some 35 flights and up to 800 tonnes of cargo daily.

“We are on schedule and our work is now going into the decisive phase,” hub project manager Michael Reinboth told German news agency DPA. The hub will be ceremonially opened several months later, giving the company time to smooth out any initial operating difficulties. No official opening date has yet been announced.

Reinboth also disclosed that DHL Express plans to run daily cargo trains with up to 16 container wagons between Leipzig and Frankfurt Airport from the summer to transfer shipments between DHL-controlled flights at Leipzig and commercial flights at Frankfurt.

Leipzig will be the third intercontinental hub in the DHL Express worldwide air network alongside Wilmington (USA) and Hong Kong.