Baiyun International Airport
Businessworld said last FedEx plane flew out of the Subic free port, the regional hub for the logistics firm since 1995, late last week. FedEx is moving its new Asia-Pacific delivery center to the Guang-zhou Baiyun International Airport in southern China.
Fed-Ex said, ‘The hub in Subic Bay, however, will remain in operation until the hub in Guangzhou is fully operational.’
Planned to open by the middle of this year, the new FedEx hub in China, the company’s largest outside the US, will service 30 Asia-Pacific countries.
The new hub in Guangzhou is expected to speed up service with 11 flights weekly through three major gateways: Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
FedEx Asia-Pacific president David Cunningham said, ‘The FedEx role as a global logistics facilitator is to connect the world. The new hub will enhance our competitive edge in managing the volume of trade that will be routed to and within this region over the next few decades.’
The new hub will be the centre point of the company’s operations in the region for the next 30 years and is expected to stimulate trade between Asia and the EU and US by providing customers with fast and reliable service between the largest marketplaces in the world.
The facility features its own ramp control tower in China to enable FedEx to better manage and control its aircraft movements.
It is also equipped with advanced package and sorting systems capable of processing up to 24,000 packages an hour at the start of operations.
Following the official opening of the new hub in Guangzhou, FedEx will decommission its facility at Subic Bay, Philippines in due course, and will continue to maintain its presence in the country, where Manila and Cebu will remain integral parts of the FedEx AsiaOne network.