DHL Express has signed an agreement to build a €90m logistics hub at Milan Malpensa airport. Work will begin at the end of 2016 and be completed by end of the second quarter of 2018.
DHL is the second express parcel giant to expand at the Italian hub after FedEx started construction on a 35,000 sq m operations base, located within Malpensa’s Cargo City, and due to be completed by the summer of this year at a total cost of €15m.
SEA, the company that manages the Milan airports, said that DHL’s 46,000 sq m facility will become the operator’s main gateway into the country for international goods.
“The construction of the new hub stems from the need to accommodate the exponential growth in goods processed by DHL Express, the effect of which will be seen in Italy in the coming years, thus increasing the demand for inter-continental flights,” declared Alberto Nobis, chief executive of DHL Express Italy.
Said an airport spokesperson: “Over the next five years, DHL will invest around €350m in Italy in order to guarantee the highest levels of service for clients in Italy and abroad, via a policy of continual innovation.
“As a result, Malpensa will acquire even greater strategic importance within the Italian market, becoming a key European Hub at the epicentre of a European network of 85 Hubs and Gateways, alongside the main Leipzig, East Midlands and Brussels Hubs."
Milano Malpensa airport transports 60% of Italian goods traffic and is the leading cargo airport in Italy. In 2015, it registered significantly higher growth rates than the average rates recorded by European airports in the same category, with a 9% increase in goods traffic on the previous year and cargo traffic volume of over 500,000 tonnes.
Milan Malpensa is the sixth largest cargo airport in Europe, after Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, London and Luxembourg.
