Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML
The Frankfurt Airport has secured its position as the leading cargo hub in Europe by successfully launching CargoCity Süd and marketing its Forwarder Center.
The Fraunhofer IML Project Center Aviation Logistics was commissioned to analyze and evaluate the development of the airport’s freight handling site over the past ten years and determine the prospects for future development. The airport commissioned IML to do this because the requirements for the current site have far exceeded the original planning estimates and because some of the companies located at the freight handling site implement new, strategic hub and network concepts. The goal of the study was to enable the adaption of the airport authorities existing development strategies and to determine the necessary measures for improving and developing the utilization concept for the freight area and integrating it into the current overall expansion concept of the airport.
The project tasks included recording and analyzing the local conditions, structural changes, global trends, and the boundary conditions that influence the development of the location. The settlement of several large global freight forwarders strengthened the bundling of airfreight flows at Frankfurt Airport. This proved to be one of the most important influencing factors as it increased the potential for the growth of air freight volume at the airport freight handling site and also increased the value of Fraport AG. The Frankfurt Airport can keep up with the demands of its expanded functional interfaces by developing and promoting new processes and products that can be realised due to the neighborhood of airport authority, airline and forwarder and that support the implementation of the forwarder’s hub strategies.