FedEx looks set to relocate its Central and Eastern Europe hub from Frankfurt airport toCologne/Bonn, according to German media reports. The news is expected to be formally announced on
August 6.FedEx has scheduled a joint press conference with Cologne/Bonn airport next Monday to beattended by the heads of FedEx Germany, FedEx Operations Central and Eastern Europe and the airportauthority.
FedEx currently has intercontinental flights between Frankfurt and its US hubs in Memphis,New York and Indianapolis, along with Shanghai, Delhi/Mumbai, Tokyo/Nagoya and its Asia Pacific hubat Subic Bay. It also has European feeder flights to/from its Paris hub as well as to/from Munich,London-Stansted, Milan, Athens, as well as Tel Aviv.
According to the Financial Times Deutschland, FedEx plans to move most of its Frankfurtflights to Cologne due to the planned night flight ban at Frankfurt which is due to come intoeffect when a fourth runway opens there in several years’ time.
The move is a major achievement for Cologne, which will lose a high proportion of its cargowhen DHL and Lufthansa Cargo relocate European and intercontinental flights to Leipzig from thisautumn onwards, the FTD pointed out. With the DHL transfer, Cologne will lose about 215,000 tonnesof the expected 740,000 tonnes volume for this year, the airport authority noted earlier this year.
Cologne/Bonn is already the home of the UPS European air hub which was doubled in capacityterms in a $135 million investment in 2005/06. The US integrator has flights between CGN and itsLouisville hub, as well as various intercontinental and European destinations.
