DHL Global Forwarding has broken ground on its new air freight centre at Frankfurt Airport — expanding and modernizing its biggest German air freight facility.

This marks the construction of the new air freight centre at Frankfurt Airport.

"With the new air freight centre, Fraport is developing a further site at CargoCity South in the immediate vicinity of Airport Gate 31," the announcement said.

It added that the new building on the approximately 55,000 square meter property will take about twelve months to complete.

DHL Global Forwarding is expected to inaugurate the air cargo centre in mid-2025.

At this site, the company will primarily handle air freight for its German and international customers and manage charter flights with its in-house service provider StarBroker.

"The new cargo centre and office complex will partly supplement the existing airport location and offers not just additional transhipment space, but also room for the new StarBroker European headquarters of DHL Global Forwarding," DHL said.

It noted that the construction of the state-of-the-art cargo centre represents a further milestone in the successful development of Frankfurt Airport as a cargo and air freight hub.

DHL noted that overall, the new building at CargoCity South will provide about 24,500 square meters of new hall space and 3,000 square meters of flexible office and social space.

The new complex also includes adequately dimensioned freight yards, 25 truck parking spaces and some 185 car parking spaces.

Upon completion, the hall will have a total of 54 gates and cross-docks with generously dimensioned driving and shunting areas and additional, separate outdoor parking for trucks.

The property is owned by Fraport AG and leased to DHL Global Forwarding.

"Today's groundbreaking of this first-class air cargo centre is part of the continuous development of Frankfurt Airport as Europe's leading air freight hub," said Anke Giesen, executive director of retail and real estate at Fraport AG.

"This building will meet the strictest ecological and economic requirements for modern freight handling facilities. As such, it will put our future tenant DHL Global Forwarding in the best position to take its air freight business to the next level. The realization of this complex project is also a testament to the extraordinarily broad portfolio and proven expertise of Fraport’s real estate development team."

Tobias Schmidt, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Europe, noted that Frankfurt Airport is of central importance as an international hub for the company's global air freight network.

"We're very pleased that we were able to develop a larger, more sustainable site in close cooperation with Fraport. The newly created space will enable us to handle greater transport volumes for our customers even more quickly and efficiently," he said.