To keep pace with the growing demand in Europe for parcel deliveries, DHL Express France said it will quadruple the size of its current sorting facility at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport over the next three years, and is in talks with Lyon Airport about building another sorting center there, according to a report from Agence France-Presse.
The €100 million project at Paris-CDG will increase the size of DHL’s current sorting facility to 20,000 square meters and will include a series of conveyors that will transfer packages directly from aircraft to waiting delivery trucks. Plans for the project, however, have not yet been submitted for approval to Aéroports de Paris, the operator of Paris-CDG.
“We have recorded growth of 14 to 15 percent per year for incoming and outgoing parcels for the past three years,” said Michel Akavi, managing director of DHL France, in the AFP report. “We don’t have enough space when we have to deliver more and more quickly, so there is more and more congestion.”
In Lyon, DHL said it is also in initial discussions with airport officials about building a 15,000- to 17,000-square-meter sorting center that is expected to cost around €40 million.