IAG Cargo is to construct a new £55 million ($71 million) premium facility at Heathrow Airport to cater for ever growing demand for products such as express shipments and pharmaceuticals.
The new building will be twice the size of IAG Cargo existing Premia facility and will include a larger dedicated Constant Climate Quality Centre for pharmaceuticals, a new delivery and collection doors and an advanced warehouse management system.
The building contractor has been appointed and construction is due to start in 2017, with the facility set to be operational from 2018.
IAG Cargo chief executive officer, Drew Crawley says: “With the continued growth of high speed e-commerce and cool chain logistics in particular, as well as the ongoing expansion of the IAG family and network, we need facilities that are ready for the next generation of premium freight.”
IAG Cargo says its Prioritise product grew by 32 per cent year-on-year in 2015 while Constant Climate registered growth of 44 per cent.
The airline group is upgrading its fleet, having taken delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 last year, and it will have 24 in operation by the end of 2016. IAG it also has 34 Airbus A350s on order as well as 12 Airbus A380s in service.
Crawley adds: “We believe that the blend of our next generation aircraft, new freight facilities such as this one and our expanding network means that IAG Cargo is extremely well positioned in the market to meet the current and future premium freight demands of our customers.”
