FedEx Newsroom

FedEx Officially Opens New Hub at Cologne Bonn Airport

BEIJING, October 28, 2010 – FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and Cologne Bonn Airport today officially opened FedEx new Central and Eastern Europe hub.
Cologne Bonn Airport and FedEx, one of the world’s largest express transportation companies, jointly invested €140 million in the new hub, which commenced operations in June 2010 after relocating from Frankfurt am Main. FedEx staff count at the Cologne/Bonn site has grown rapidly from approximately 35 to more than 450 employees. 
The new hub enables FedEx to expand its operational capacity in Germany and across Europe, as well as pursuing its long-term ambition of increasing the company’s’ footprint in Eastern Europe and facilitate access to other markets. It also helps the company continue to offer its customers a seamless and reliable service. The Cologne hub is a vital facility in FedEx worldwide network, acting as a central conduit for packages arriving by ground or air from Central and Eastern Europe enroute to the U.S. or Asia via the FedEx Europe hub in Paris. In addition, the Cologne hub will also deliver shipments to companies throughout Germany and across Central and Eastern Europe.
“Asia has long been a key trading partner with Europe. The new Cologne hub is a testament to FedEx optimism in the economic potential of Germany and the central and Eastern Europe region. In the first seven months in 2010, Germany observed EUR87.7 billion trade surplus among the Member States[1],” said David L. Cunningham Jr., president, FedEx Express Asia Pacific. “With the new Cologne hub, customers will benefit from the enhanced access and connectivity between Asia and Europe.”

According to EuroState, Europe registered encouraging trading performance with Asian countires in the first seven months in 2010. The export from China, South Korea and Japan to the 27 states of the European Union marked increases of 25%, 13% and 20% respectively year-on-year. [2].
The hub in Cologne is one of the most modern in the world. Its fully-automated sorting system can process up to 18,000 packages and documents per hour. The roof features FedEx largest solar power plant worldwide in terms of surface area and represents one of the largest rooftop solar plants in North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of 16,000 square meters and produces about 800,000 kilowatt hours per year – enough energy to power roughly 230 three-person households for an entire year.
Additional information about FedEx and the Cologne hub is available at fedex.de/koeln.