Frankfurt Airport Expansion: DHL Global Forwarding Starts Work on New Airfreight Facility

Construction has begun on DHL Global Forwarding’s new airfreight centre at Frankfurt Airport.

The forwarder expects to inaugurate the air cargo centre in mid-2025. Fraport, the owner and operator of Frankfurt Airport (FRA), has leased the property space to DHL Global Forwarding and is working on the development project with the forwarder.

Tobias Schmidt, chief executive of DHL Global Forwarding Europe, and Anke Giesen, Fraport executive director retail and real estate, led the official groundbreaking ceremony at Frankfurt Airport’s CargoCity South.

The new building on the approximately 55,000 sq m property will take about twelve months to complete.

At this site, the company will primarily handle airfreight for its German and international customers and manage charter flights with its in-house service provider StarBroker.

The new cargo centre and office complex will partly supplement the existing airport location and offer not just additional transhipment space, but also room for the new StarBroker European headquarters of DHL Global Forwarding.

“Located in the heart of Europe, Frankfurt Airport is of central importance as an international hub for our global air freight network,” said Schmidt.

“We’re very pleased that we were able to develop a larger, more sustainable site in close cooperation with Fraport. The newly created space will enable us to handle greater transport volumes for our customers even more quickly and efficiently.”

The new complex includes freight yards, 25 truck parking spaces and some 185 car parking spaces. Upon completion, the hall will have a total of 54 gates and cross-docks with driving and shunting areas and additional, separate outdoor parking for trucks.

“Today’s groundbreaking of this first-class air cargo centre is part of the continuous development of Frankfurt Airport as Europe’s leading air freight hub,” explained Anke Giesen, executive director retail and real estate at Fraport AG.

“This building will meet the strictest ecological and economic requirements for modern freight handling facilities. As such, it will put our future tenant DHL Global Forwarding in the best position to take its airfreight business to the next level. The realisation of this complex project is also a testament to the extraordinarily broad portfolio and proven expertise of Fraport’s real estate development team.”