FedEx adds B757 flight between Munich and Paris; selects Norcross site for new DC

FedEx Express has enhanced its service offerings in Bavaria and Western Austria by operating a Boeing 757 aircraft between Munich and Paris.

Customers in the Munich and Nuremberg metropolitan regions now benefit from later pick-up times of up to one hour for shipments up to 68 kg destined for Europe or Asia.

Transit times for heavyweight shipments (up to 1,000 kg) destined for Europe or Asia have been improved by one or two business days, and certain imported shipments between 68 kg and 1,000 kg from Europe or Asia are delivered to the Munich area within one business day.

With the B757 flight, FedEx has also increased its capacity for shipments from Bavaria and Western Austria. The aircraft flies four times a week from Munich to FedEx hub in Paris, which serves as the European hub for the company’s worldwide network.

The Munich – Cologne route, which has been served to date with an Airbus A310, has also been served by a B757 since end-February.

In other news, FedEx Ground has selected a 52 acre site in Norcross, Georgia, for a new $55 million distribution centre that will complement the operations of three existing facilities in the Atlanta area.

Site preparation has begun and construction will begin shortly, and the 215,000 sq.ft facility is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012.

The new facility will feature automated material-handling technology designed to process 15,000 packages per hour, and will dispatch as many as 75 pickup and delivery vans each day. At full capacity, the number of vans dispatched to service the local community could reach 175.

The new facility is part of a nationwide network expansion to boost daily package volume capacity and further enhance the speed and service capabilities of the FedEx Ground network.

Since embarking on the multi-year expansion program in 2002, FedEx Ground has opened ten new hubs and nine automated pickup and delivery stations, and has expanded or relocated more than 500 local facilities.

Accompanying the growth in infrastructure, average daily package volumes in the FedEx Ground network have increased by more than 70% from 2.1 million in 2003 to more than 3.6 million today.