FedEx to expand capacity at Paris airport hub

The Memphis, Tenn.-based integrator will invest 200 million euros to expand its airfreight logistics center at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and has signed a 30-year lease agreement with a total rental value of 1.2 billion euros, the company said today.    FedEx Corp. plans to expand the capacity of its airfreight logistics hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) by as much as 40 percent, the company said at a lease-signing ceremony earlier today at the airport in the Paris suburb of Roissy, France.
   Under a new 30-year lease agreement, the Memphis, Tenn.-based integrator will invest a total of 1.4 billion euros (U.S. $1.54 billion) in the facility – 200 million euros for the expansion project and the remaining 1.2 billion euros in rental fees.
   The expanded facility, construction of which is scheduled to begin in summer 2017, will include a new, automated sorting system for large, over-sized packages, the first of its kind for FedEx Express. The sorting facility is expected to be operational by 2019.
   French President Francois Hollande attended the lease-signing ceremony at CDG, and said the move by FedEx represents “an additional sign of France’s attractiveness.”
   “With the decision by Britons to leave the European Union, it should lead us to attract even more investments,” he added.
   The additional 25,000 square meters of logistics space will make the CDG hub FedEx’s second largest worldwide after its headquarters in Memphis, Tenn., and will create between 200 and 400 jobs, according to a statement handed out during the ceremony.
   “This investment is part of the company’s network expansion strategy, creating more capacity and enabling more business connections in Europe and around the world,” said David Binks, president, FedEx Express Europe and CEO of TNT. “This new expansion, coupled with the recent TNT acquisition, supports the evolving needs of our customers and the global marketplace while increasing our ability to support trends like cross-border e-commerce.”
   FedEx in late May officially completed its 4.4 billion euro purchase of the Netherlands-based global express carrier TNT Express, and has been working to integrate the former TNT’s network with that of FedEx Express.
   “At FedEx, we have the ability to pick up, transport and deliver an item from 95 percent of the people on the planet, and most every business in the world, within one to two business days,” added FedEx Express President and CEO David Bronczek. “This strategic expansion in Paris is an example of how we will continue to invest to move goods faster and more reliably across borders, which means our customers can decrease costs, improve their supply chain and identify new opportunities for growth and profitability.”
   The company, which has made significant investments in France over the past few years, opening 19 new stations since 2011 and acquiring domestic parcel carrier Tatex in 2012, said its hub in Cologne, Germany and the former TNT hub in Liege, Belgium will still play pivotal role in its operations.
   In addition, FedEx will soon open a TNT ground hub in the Ile de France region just north of Paris, along with three TNT ground depots.
   European parcel and express giant DHL last week officially opened a new 230 million euro (U.S. $253.8 million) sorting center at its global air hub in Leipzig, Germany, boosting processing capacity by almost 50 percent.