Logistics at airports
The airfreight sector will continue to move forward in the long term, despite the current reduction of airside capacities. The same can be said for logistics real estate enterprises, especially from the USA. Their efforts aren’t limited to their home markets, however.
There are still some real estate projects at smaller airports in Europe, which is actually already fully connected. At the beginning of March Ben Houchen for example, the mayor of the Tees Valley combined metropolitan authority, laid the foundation stone for a production and logistics park at Teesside airport (MME). The area, characterised by its industrial nature, includes the Northern English cities of Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Darlington. The project envisages investment of approximately GBP 200 million in a 315,000 m2 facility on a 109 ha plot of land. It is expected to create as many as 4,400 jobs and secure the airport’s future by opening up options on new routes, including to and from Ireland.
MME has not bothered the air cargo statisticians much so far; Dublin (DUB), in contrast, is Europe’s No. 27 airfreight hub, according to ACI Europe. It has now been chosen by Avair, a US supplier of spare parts to the aviation industry worldwide, as the springboard for its expansion into Europe, Asia and the Middle East. On 10 March it announced plans to establish a 2,300 m2 warehouse to distribute some of the 26 million parts it handles.
The US property developer Realterm is also gearing up for new projects. Five years after it set up its open mixed fund Realterm Airport Logistics Properties, which includes 133 properties in 36 airports (total volume approximately USD 1.3 billion), it has now announced the completion of new capital agreements worth approximately USD 150 million.
Last but not least, the refashioning of a former air force base as a perishables hub 100 miles northwest of Miami FL (USA) has reached an interim milestone. Airglades airport’s management has laid the foundation stone for a USD 2.1 million US Customs and Border Protection facility covering 370 m2.