Swissport UK & Ireland has set its sights on growth as it continues to add capacity by opening facilities at key cargo hubs.
Cargo tonnage was up by 17% year on year in November and the UK and Ireland arm of Swissport expects its cargo handling capacity to be up 41% versus 2023 by the end of the first quarter of 2025, says Luke Hayhoe, chief commercial officer, UK&I.
Speaking to Air Cargo News, Hayhoe explains: “We wanted more capacity because airfreight demand at the moment is growing considerably, both from growth of belly and freighters. We’re bursting at the seams so that’s why we’re opening new facilities.”
Most recently, in December, the ground handling and aviation services company agreed a five-year lease for two units, comprising 62,400 sq ft of warehouse space, at SEGRO’s air cargo facility at Gatwick Airport.
Swissport has held capacity at Gatwick before, but the company wasn’t active at the airport at the time of the lease deal, prompted by customer demand.
The facility will likely hold general cargo, but plans are being firmed up for future use.
“We are currently talking to a number of existing and new customers that will (be expected to) use the facility,” says Hayhoe.
In November, Swissport had also opened its fifth cargo facility at Heathrow Airport.
The airside facility, which joined four other Swissport facilities at Heathrow, includes 15,000 sq ft of temperature-controlled space for perishables and pharma shipments, as well as traditional cargo storage.
This fifth facility is also a cut above the rest, offering direct airside access and acting as a Border Inspection Post with immediate airside evaluation capabilities for importing goods.
“We’ve been looking for some more facilities at Heathrow for a long time,” says Hayhoe.
He points out that there are only two border inspection points in Heathrow, and the new Swissport facility utilises one of them.
“This is the only Tier one facility with direct airside access at Heathrow,” Hayhoe adds.
Swissport also opened a new facility at London Stansted Airport last year, almost doubling its capacity at the Essex-located airport, at which there are now 18 cargo operators.
Taking up residence in the old Royal Mail building has helped the handler further build its cargo business at Stansted, with customers including Emirates and Qatar.
“We’ve got a variety of different customers from various parts of the globe. So, it’s become a busy station from a cargo perspective.”
Beyond the south
Swissport is further investing in other strategically important sites in the UK, not least because Heathrow and Stansted have limited capacity available to grow their operations.
The handler is developing a facility at Manchester Airport, due to be operational at the end of the second quarter.
Meanwhile in the Midlands, Swissport will open a new facility at East Midlands Airport in this quarter and is looking to expand at Birmingham Airport too.
“We’ve also already got a good facility in Birmingham, but we’ve started handling more freighters there than we used to. And at East Midlands we have started handling freighters more regularly as well.”
Crucially, airfreight handling facilities in the Midlands region are supported by road networks.
“Road networks are very good, of course from the Midlands,” Hayhoe says, adding that it makes sense to utilise supply chains throughout the UK, not just in and around London.
But despite investing in so much capacity, there is always scope for more, suggests Hayhoe.
On the subject of the biggest market challenges for ground handlers in 2025, he says: “Capacity is always really the biggest challenge. From a cargo perspective, the vast majority of our facilities are full, so we’ve actively gone out on expanding those footprints.
“Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, we tend to fill those facilities up fairly quickly.”
Swissport’s capacity expansion rollout has been supported by a strong peak season and anticipated continued momentum this year.
“We are in line with or ahead of where we expected to be in terms of tonnage,” says Hayhoe. “The new facilities have definitely helped.
“We’ve been carrying high volumes all summer (2024) as well - in the off-peak season. So the peak season has been extra peaky.”
Swissport is confident about business in 2025, citing increased demand from e-commerce and sea-air shift as a result of the Red Sea crisis as factors.
“In some regions, there has been a strategic move from sea to air cargo,” he states. “We’re seeing a huge amount of traffic growth in e-commerce from the Far East and China. We don’t expect this to go away anytime soon.”
He summarises: “There’s obviously a number of global issues going on and the airlines have got new aircraft delays and some yield pressures, but from a ground handler’s perspective the demand forecast is still relatively strong.”
