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Aviation History
2000
2000-1 - 1073.PDF
17 Airbus A300B4 freighters ply DHL's European network each night providing around 3 St of cargo capacity in volume terms (Italy) and Vittoria (Spain) - handle 650-700t a night between them, says Olafson. Two McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30Fs wet- leased from Gemini operate each night across the Atlantic, connecting DHL's European and US networks. EAT also flies between Bahrain and Brussels six times a week to connect into the Middle Eastern network, while the African net work is served through flights to Lagos, Nigeria. CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS Olafson says it is not yet clear what the impact of the new noise legislation will be in Brussels as it has not yet been officially finalised, but it will effectively be a noise quota system. He adds that the other constraining factor on growth is the amount of capacity left in its Brussels hub. "There is about 15-20% " more growth in the existing facility," says Olafson. "The effective limit is aircraft parking availability." Some of the required growth will be swallowed by the outer hubs, he says, but the main hub will reach its maximum within the next couple of years. "We will push more traffic onto direct rout ings from the outer hubs and bypass the Belgian capital. By 2002 we will probably be handling as much through the outer hubs as we do through Brussels," says Olafson. "Any decision on whether to build a new facility at Brussels is at least 12 months away, and it will take 2-3 years to get up and running. Future expansion will depend on how the new environmental regula tions pan out. We have no intention of leaving Brussels...we have made such a huge invest ment here," he adds. About the time DHL was establishing itself in Europe, road trucking specialist TNT creat ed an air hub to support its European opera tions. After initially operating from a hub in Nuremburg from May 1987, TNT set up shop alongside UPS at Cologne in 1988 with a small fleet of BAe 146 Quiet Trader (QT) freighters. Like DHL, TNT has come a long way in the 13 years since,. It boasts a fleet of 26 aircraft, ships 460t by air each night and moved into its own purpose-built European "super-hub" in Liege, Belgium, in March 1998. Its recently cre ated in-house maintenance and AOC opera tion, TNT Airways, is also based here. TNT's network is die reverse of DHL's, with its air network representing just 35% in value terms of all shipments - the remainder is carried by the massive trucking division which has its European road hub in Arnhem, Holland. The TNT group was purchased at the end of 1996 bv Dutch postal service KPN, which is now the TNT Post Group (TPG). The publicly listed organisation employs 116,000 people worldwide and operates in more than 200 countries, with revenues in excess of €8.5 billion (S9.8 billion). The airline arm employs around 540 people. Formed in Australia in 1946 as Thomas Nationwide Transport, TNT first established itself in the UK in 1978. TNT decided to create its its own dedicated air operation, and in early 1987 acquired the first of seventeen 1 l/12tpay- load 146QTs and signed up Luton, UK-based Air Foyle to provide the required air-operator's certificate and crews. EUROPEAN EXPANSION In 1992, TNT took over FedEx's European dis tribution when the US carrier withdrew its own dedicated operations from the region. The US giant has since reversed that decision and is developing a major hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. TNT's expansion in Europe saw it establish a central hub in Cologne during 1988, and create other operating bases. TNT is phasing out its 121fleet and replacing FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 19 - 25 September 2000 IHIU litth -i mi is tin i a yet-to-be-decided medium-sized freighter 45
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