Birmingham breaks ground on Kuehne+Nagel’s new Alabama home
01 / 06 / 2023
Photo: Jaromir Chalabala/ Shutterstock
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Alabama, US, has turned the first sod on its $27m air cargo facility, scheduled to be the home base for Kuehne+Nagel (K+N)’s weekly cargo flights from Stuttgart, Germany.
In February, the airport signed a partnership with the global forwarder to operate scheduled cargo flights into Shuttlesworth which it hopes, over time, will transform Birmingham into a gateway for the Southeastern US.
K+N is already operating the flights using a temporary base at the Kaiser Aircraft Industries hangar at Shuttlesworth but will move into the new air cargo facility following completion of the expected ten-month construction programme in Spring 2024.
K+N will subcontract warehouse management to Alliance Ground International (AGI).
The new 53,000sq ft building includes 48,500sq ft of warehouse space with 17 loading bays and five airside bay doors, two airside and two landside rollup doors and office space.
At the ceremony, chair of the Birmingham Airport Authority, Darlene Wilson, declared: “This has been a long-term goal of the airport and to see it all coming together is a huge win for our community. We have the infrastructure in place. We have the best partners in the business. And we have the determination to continue building on what we established earlier this year.”
Last year, Birmingham-Shuttlesworth handled 1,564 air cargo operations moving nearly 21 tonnes of goods into the region, but this is expected to increase markedly with the new KN flights.
The airport believes that it is poised for growth with its central location and freedom from the congestion that affects large hub airports.
It said: “Smaller airports that have the infrastructure in place and the warehousing capacity to offer are capitalising on an industry desire to get cargo out to customers faster, cheaper, and on a more predictable schedule.”
