Luxair Cargo at Luxembourg Airport (pictured) has finalised plans for dangerous goods and live animal infrastructure and is working on how to improve facilities outsized cargo without disrupting existing operations.
The dangerous goods facility will have a capacity of 75,000 tonnes a year as well as a 1,000 square metre area with dedicated sprinkled storage area and shelters. Luxair Cargo says it will be able have fully licensed staff available to handle all classes of dangerous goods including radioactive.
The live animal facility complies with all European Union regulations and has space for up 50 horses. Luxair Cargo says it handled 1,950 horses in 2014 and is expecting a 15 per cent increase in 2015. It will have a dedicated centre for live birds.
Luxair Cargo manager of business development and contracts, Antoine Decker (pictured) says: “Having finalised these projects, we are already working to implement our next big challenge. Increase the outsized handling area without compromising the ongoing operation.
“Our knowhow in handling outsized and heavy shipments made it necessary to increase the dedicated area by about 6,000 square metres.”
The outsized cargo area covers 7,500 square metres of space but expansion permitting, this will go up to 13,500 square metres. The area handles goods including aircraft engines, oil and gas equipment, vehicles, helicopters and heavy industry equipment. The outsized area has a capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year.
At the Cargocenter, Luxair Cargo has been using truck parking management software to improve acceptance and delivery processing time. Decker says Luxair Cargo uses live data on tablet computers to identify bottlenecks so it can plan accordingly and keep operations running smoothly.
Decker says: “The requirements of the customers are getting more and more precise and thus we have to adapt by being more being more sophisticated in our processes.”
He continues: “Our aim here in Luxembourg is to have our Cargocenter designed for a high volume full freighter hub operation and not to only build warehouse facilities to supply handling services for changing rotating customers carriers.”
Luxembourg Airport has room to expand and its operator, Lux-Airport has increased the number of cargo parking stands.
Lux-Airport commercial director, Jerome Le Bris says Luxembourg’s central location in Europe is something airlines can take advantage of. He says: “We are particularly keen to develop our portfolio of regular airlines, who can take advantage of our excellent geographical location, our efficiency, and a strong political support towards logistics in general.”
The airport will be expanding the cargo apron so it can increase the number of aircraft handling positions from eight to twelve.
In May, Lux-Airport signed a memorandum of understanding with Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals to promote transporting pharmaceuticals in accordance with Good Distribution Practices.
At the time, Lux-Airport chief executive officer, Johan Vanneste said: “I am convinced this is a very interesting and unique development for shippers of valuable pharma shipments.”
