A.P. Moller – Maersk has inaugurated a new 130,000 square foot air freight import/export gateway near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

The new facility offers direct planeside recovery with immediate unit load device (ULD) transfers, and complements Maersk’s growing north American network of air cargo gateways, including Atlanta and Chicago.

The new facility is just 15 miles from LAX and less than nine miles from the Port of Long Beach.

John Wetherell, regional head of air freight, North America at Maersk, said: “Our new Los Angeles air hub positions Maersk for years of growth.

“LA is a self-managed air facility that has tripled our access to capacity on the US West Coast. Our customers will benefit from higher service levels and greater warehouse capacity.”

Site staffing will be in place to conduct customs brokerage, commercial sales, and freight operations such as LCL transload.

The site is a US Customs bonded Container Freight Station (CFS) and a US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Certified Cargo Screening Facility (CCSF).

The facility is also scheduled to attain Free Trade Zone status in 2024 to benefit from lower duties, reduced processing fees, and faster movement of goods.

Maersk says the facility is the latest step in company’s North American air freight capacity expansion programme that extends across strategic cargo entry points and is aligned to customer demand.

The company also says the new capacity will allow for more supply chain integration opportunities and better scaling to care for seasonal peaks as well as market driven volume spikes for breakout product launches.

LAX is one of the busiest airports in the world for both passenger traffic and cargo handling and is a major gateway between the US and the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Los Angeles World Airports, LAX ranks among the top five airports in the US by tonnage, and is a leading high-technology centre for the nation in the entertainment, electronics, biomedical, computers, and aerospace industries.