Fraport and Swissport Cargo Services Deutschland have laid the foundation stone for the cargo handler’s new facility at Frankfurt Airport.

The new building in CargoCity South will expand Swissport’s handling capacity by almost 50% and meet requirements for state-of-the-art airfreight handling.

The warehouse includes a material handling system allowing containers and pallets to be automatically stored in and removed from the facility.

The cargo centre will be fitted out in accordance with strict IATA criteria and will be CEIV Pharma certified after going into operation.

The roof will have the first large-scale photovoltaic system at Frankfurt Airport, generating 1.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

Felix Kreutel, senior vice president of real estate and properties at Fraport says: “Fraport operates Europe’s largest cargo hub at Frankfurt Airport. We intend to write another chapter in this success story together with our long-standing customer Swissport. To achieve this, we are continuously optimising our service and product range and offering intelligent infrastructure solutions for our customers.”

The building will handle up to 200,000 tonnes of airfreight a year, with Willy Ruf, Swissport’s senior vice president Central and Eastern Europe commenting: “We are looking forward to offering our customers individual air cargo services at one of Europe’s most modern and sustainable airfreight facilities starting in the autumn of 2020. Frankfurt Airport thus remains one of the most important airfreight locations in our global Swissport network.”

Handover is scheduled for the third quarter of 2020, and the facility was designed by M&P Architekten, with Goldbeck acting as general contractor.