DHL Express will continue investing in its European and intercontinental air network with amodernised freighter fleet and new hubs while maintaining operational flexibility, according to
senior executives.“We have a virtual global airline,” Charlie Dobbie, DHL Express Executive Vice President NetworkOperations, told international journalists in Leipzig this week. “We are very flexible due to highuse of commercial capacity. We are not reliant on DHL airlines but we have enough capacity for coreflows.”
The intercontinental air fleet will be expanded with three more B777s for AeroLogic this year,taking its fleet to eight B777s, and three more B767s for transatlantic flights in 2012, inaddition to the current three planes. On transpacific routes, minority-owned Polar Air Cargocurrently has six B747s flying to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul.
In Europe, DHL is the largest European cargo airline with 85 dedicated planes, interconnectingwith the transatlantic B767 flights and the B777 services to Asia, and operating an average of 284daily flights, Geoff Kehr, Senior Vice President Aviation Europe, said. The European fleetcurrently includes 33 B757 freighters, with 11 based in Leipzig and 22 at East Midlands Airport inthe UK, five B737Fs, 11 sub-contracted A300s, operating out of Ireland, and a range of smallerowned and sub-contracted planes.
After downsizing the fleet by taking seven A300s out of service in response to the worldwidevolume slump in 2008/09, the remaining 11 A300s will operate for a few more years, Kehr toldCEP-Research. They will then be replaced by 11 DHL-operated B767s, with potential to increase to 18planes depending on business development. The 22 B757 freighters at EMA will remain based in the UKand not be transferred to Leipzig, he stressed.
On the ground, DHL Express will open its new North Asia hub at Shanghai in 2012, said ChrisBresnahan, managing director hubs & gateways Europe. This will mostly be used for traffic flowsbetween China, Japan and South Korea, and will complement the main Asia hub at Hong Kong.
The €300 million Leipzig hub, which is DHL’s largest air hub, is performing very well with anaverage handling time per shipment of less than 120 minutes, Bresnahan said. The hub now handles90% of all European and about 10% of worldwide shipments. Future investments at Leipzig includeapron enlargement for four more wide-body planes, he noted.
