As FedEx Express Europe, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp and the world’s largest express transportation company, announces its expansion in Dublin, Mike Roche, managing director at FedEx Express Ireland, tells Air Cargo Management how the move is setting the business – and its customers – up for future growth in this important market.

Last month, we announced plans to build a new state-of-the-art logistics facility in Dublin, Ireland. With the country exporting over €165 billion of goods in 2021, this is a strategic move that will allow us to grow and continue providing a fast, reliable service to Irish businesses trading within the domestic market or looking to go global.

The new facility will serve as the FedEx headquarters in Ireland and combine key operations, including a pickup and delivery station, aircraft operations, customs clearance teams, and other essential back-office functions. It’s being designed to accommodate all types of shipments, from small parcels to large freight shipments, temperature-controlled pharma containers and dangerous goods.

Decreasing transfer times

Subject to planning permission being granted, construction is scheduled to start in January 2024, with the new facility set to become operational in early 2025.

A huge benefit will be the reduction of transfer times to and from the airport. The new site is adjacent to the West Apron at Dublin Airport where our aircraft park on arrival and before outbound departure.

Consequently, transfer times from our two current stations in Santry and Belgard Road, Tallaght will improve by 15 minutes and 40 minutes respectively. As a result, we will be able to get to market earlier for deliveries. We will also be able to work with our export shipping customers to make later collections, to accommodate or extend their production windows.

The location at the Horizon Business Park south of Dublin Airport is also ideal for connection to the M50 within minutes, so the new facility will therefore have a positive impact on the service we provide to our customers who are served from stations outside Dublin.

As we have direct access to our aircraft with our own airline containerised trucks, we will always have full custody of all shipments, from collection to delivery.

Reducing our carbon footprint

Our spacious new facility will feature a warehouse covering 14,561sqm, 30 loading bays for trucks and 137 loading bays for vans for loading and unloading shipments, as well as a variety of new design considerations aimed at lessening the environmental impact of our day-to-day operations.

These include compliance with the Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) standard, which is equivalent to achieving a LEED Silver rating, and will comprise several sustainable design features, such as rooftop solar panels, insulated ceiling and wall panels, and double-glazed UV protective windows. Charging points for delivery vehicles will also allow us to expand the use of electric vehicles within our fleet.

Improved functionality

Thanks to a fully automated sorter system spanning the internal length of the building and a sorter mezzanine area, we will have the capacity to sort packages to each individual vehicle within a very short timeframe, considerably improving our time to market.

The sorter, incorporating state of the art x-ray facilities, will have a capacity of 4.5k PPH on the main line, a total parcel x-ray capacity of 1.060 PPH, two telescopic booms for COY loading/unloading and one line for non-conveyable handling.

With a max speed of 7,500 packs per hour, based on expected through put rates, the inbound sortation capacity will be able to reach triple the existing levels.

In summary

Our customers will benefit from improved transit times, faster automated sortation, larger delivery and collection windows, and a more environmentally sustainable operation.

With over 60 per cent of our Irish business based in Dublin, we are very excited about this upcoming expansion. Together with our new facility in Cork, which is already operational, it not only serves as a local hub and gateway for inbound flights it greatly boosts our operations and gives us scope for expansion across the whole of Ireland.