American Airlines Cargo announced a large-scale enhancement in its facility and digital capabilities at London Heathrow Airport (LHR), its largest operation in Europe.

The carrier said it has made an extensive facility expansion at LHR by moving to a new location. The move, adjacent to its two former buildings, also combines the carrier's operations into one larger footprint for both imports and exports.

The new facility provides more space and enables greater flexibility for the carrier and its cargo handler, Worldwide Flight Services (WFS). 

The new building offers a total of 120,000 square feet, a 15,000 square foot increase compared to the original combined facilities and nearly doubles the capacity for storage of PMC pallets.

American Airlines Cargo noted that landside and airside doors, X-ray machines and build stations also all increase at the new building – all of which enable faster acceptance and delivery as well as build-up and break-down efforts.

In addition to the facility move, American has also updated how it transmits operational updates digitally with WFS. The combined effort enables a new digital connection between the WFS system, CargoSpot, and American's iCargo platform. 

"The facility expansion is a significant milestone for us in how we operate in LHR," says Sam Mendenhall, VP of Operations for American Airlines Cargo.

"We are confident that the move to a larger, more uniform cargo facility, coupled with the technology enhancements with WFS, will unlock operational efficiencies and ultimately provide a better experience for our customers who ship in and out of LHR."

American currently operates 20 widebody flights a day out of LHR to key hubs in the US, with as many as 26 per day during the summer peak season.