A marquee on the apron, two small cargo planes and a handful of staff – this is how the express parcel service provider UPS opened its site at Cologne Bonn Airport on 15 September 1986.
Today, exactly 40 years later, what began as around 2,000 parcels handled per month has grown into the capacity to sort up to 190,000 parcels per hour. Over 3,600 employees currently work for the company at this site.
For four decades, UPS and the airport have shared a close partnership and a success story.
After its early days on the apron, UPS quickly moved into a cargo terminal to meet the steadily growing demand. And in the years that followed, the Cologne/Bonn site continued to grow in line with the demands of the international express freight business – eventually becoming UPS’s largest site outside the USA. As a hub for Europe, Cologne/Bonn has played a pivotal role in the express and parcel service provider’s global logistics network for many years.
As a central hub in the global network, this UPS branch is not only a transit hub for worldwide shipments, but also a gateway to the world for companies in the region. This means that parcels can be delivered from Cologne to any address in the USA and to many destinations in Canada and Mexico.
As the site has grown, so too has the responsibility for its future, which is why sustainability plays an important role at UPS: For large ground vehicles at Cologne/Bonn Airport, UPS uses 100 per cent HVO, a hydrogenated vegetable oil. The entire facility is powered by electricity from renewable sources. The switch from the former MD-11 aircraft type to the quieter and more fuel-efficient Boeing 747-8 is also part of the site’s ongoing development.
40 years of UPS in Cologne/Bonn represent four decades of development and progress – and a site that will continue to play a central role in the global UPS network in the future.
Congratulations on the 40th anniversary of our airport, United Parcel Service!
A photo gallery can be found on our neighbourhood portal, cgn-nebenan.de.