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Lufthansa Cargo invests more than $600M to overhaul Frankfurt hub

Massive project to speed cargo flow will take 8 years to complete

Construction of Lufthansa Cargo’s high-bay warehouse is underway next to the airfield at Frankfurt Airport. (Photo: Lufthansa Cargo)

Deutsche Lufthansa has increased investment in a comprehensive modernization of its large air cargo hub in Frankfurt by 100 million euros ($110.5 million) as the new high-bay warehouse rises one year after construction started.

Lufthansa’s cargo subsidiary aims to transform the 3.5 million-square-foot cargo terminal – equivalent in size to 46 soccer fields – into Europe’s most advanced air hub. Last week it marked the renovation project’s progress with a celebration attended by local politicians, customers, employees and project partners. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in 2030.

The airline said it is investing $663 million in the modernization project. The price tag is higher than originally planned because management rolled the planned revitalization of an existing cargo building into the project, said spokesman Jan Paulin in an email message. The renewal  will cover cargo handling areas and offices, including storage and conveyor technology and IT systems.

Lufthansa Cargo operates 18 Boeing 777 cargo jets and four Airbus A321 narrowbody freighters, and manages shipments carried by several passenger carriers owned by Lufthansa Group, including Austrian Airlines. It is the largest cargo carrier at Frankfurt Airport. About 80% of the airline’s global cargo volume – 1.4 million tons – flows through the Frankfurt hub. 


Construction work is being carried out in phases to ensure that around-the-clock operations can continue uninterrupted, a process Lufthansa Cargo says is akin to open heart surgery. The proximity of flight operations to construction requires strict safety measures and careful coordination to avoid any disruption, according to a project fact sheet. Numerous subprojects within the facility must be carefully coordinated to prevent delays and conflicts.

The redevelopment, located in the cargo campus on the north side of Frankfurt’s airport, features a 131-foot-tall warehouse that will allow the airline to install high racks for storing pallets and an automated transport system. The new building will be the second-highest at the airport after the control tower. It is designed to improve cargo capacity and efficiency compared to facilities with low ceilings. Photos show the completed superstructure of the warehouse’s stair tower. The new construction will add 280,000 square feet of space to the cargo complex. 

The warehouse will have 13 levels, offer 3,000 pallet positions and allow for up to 325 storage and retrieval operations per hour – twice the current capacity. Automated shuttle pods will move goods within the warehouse.

“For our customers, this means faster handling speeds, easier transport processes and an improvement in service quality,” Lufthansa Cargo CEO Ashwin Bhat said in a news release last year.


Contractors will use more than 3,500 tons of steel for the warehouse and conveyor system – nearly half the amount used in the Eiffel Tower.

In addition to the new building, Lufthansa Cargo is upgrading its existing cargo center through retrofits or replacement buildings. 

The first parts of the automated transport system and construction of the first two building modules are expected to be completed by 2027, according to the company. 

To minimize environmental impact, Lufthansa will outfit new buildings with solar panels, heat recovery systems, and efficient heating, ventilation and cooling systems.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

Twitter: @ericreports / LinkedIn: Eric Kulisch 

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Eric Kulisch

Eric is the Supply Chain and Air Cargo Editor at FreightWaves. An award-winning business journalist with extensive experience covering the logistics sector, Eric spent nearly two years as the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Automotive News, where he focused on regulatory and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, mobility, fuel economy and safety. He has won two regional Gold Medals and a Silver Medal from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for government and trade coverage, and news analysis. He was voted best for feature writing and commentary in the Trade/Newsletter category by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He was runner up for News Journalist and Supply Chain Journalist of the Year in the Seahorse Freight Association's 2024 journalism award competition. In December 2022, Eric was voted runner up for Air Cargo Journalist. He won the group's Environmental Journalist of the Year award in 2014 and was the 2013 Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. As associate editor at American Shipper Magazine for more than a decade, he wrote about trade, freight transportation and supply chains. He has appeared on Marketplace, ABC News and National Public Radio to talk about logistics issues in the news. Eric is based in Vancouver, Washington. He can be reached for comments and tips at ekulisch@freightwaves.com