DHL is experiencing start-up problems after transferring its European air hub from Brussels toLeipzig in eastern Germany at the end of March, according to a German newspaper report today. But
DHL says everything is going to plan at the €300 million new hub.German newspaper Die Welt reported that problems include delayed departures, insufficientground handling capacity and a lack of staff training. But a DHL spokesman told the newspaper: “Weare not aware of any problems. Everything is going to plan.”
DHL Express now operates 60 own and sub-contracted freighters each night at Leipzig, withtotal capacity of 1,500 tonnes per night. It currently has about 2,000 staff at the hub, which isdue to be officially opened on May 26 with a major public ceremony.
But according to pilots’ comments in internet forums, Die Welt wrote, ground staff at the newhub have not yet been sufficiently trained to manage the complete handling. As a result, only50-70% of the freight volumes can be loaded. To cope with these problems, DHL has redirected someflights from Leipzig back to Brussels and re-employed some of the staff at Brussels airport whowere laid off weeks ago.
One pilot commented on the delays: “Recently, 60 planes departed from Leipzig with a delay ofat least one hour. Only one plane was on time.” An employee from Brussels airport, who took on anew position in Leipzig, said: “In Brussels we could drive a truck with 5-6 dollies behind us. InLeipzig, it’s even hard to drive with three dollies at your back, and if you have 60 planes tounload or load, you lose a lot of time this way.”
Another pilot said there was a three-hour unloading delay on one day and even compared thesituation with the chaos at Heathrow Airport at the beginning of this month when hundreds offlights had to be postponed and thousands of luggage pieces sent back to their owners. “Three yearsof planning and it looks like the Terminal 5 disaster,” he commented.
The €300 million Leipzig hub is DHL Express’ third global hub alongside Hong Kong andWilmington, United States. The opening of the Wilmington hub several years ago was marked by majoroperational difficulties.
* DHL will shut down its site in Bochum on 30 June cutting 230 jobs, the WestdeutscheAllgemeine Zeitung reported. This is due to the relocation of its major client Nokia which willclose its factory in the western German city this summer due to high operating costs and transferproduction to Finland and lower-cost sites in Romania and Hungary.
