DHL doubles down in Miami

DHL Express has just completed a renovation and expansion at its Miami International Airport facility that doubles its sorting capacity.

The US$78 million project comes into service just as the carrier expects continued double digit shipment growth (YoY), throughout the Americas region during the peak holiday season.

Looking at the last two years and trends as a result of the pandemic with the surge in online consumer purchasing, the Americas region countries experienced an average B2C shipment growth of 44 percent in 2020 (YoY), and 21 percent in 2021  to the end of September.

The investment, which is part of a larger $360 million plan for the region to increase capacity in the DHL Express Americas network by nearly 30 percent by the end of 2022, includes a fully automated package sort system.

With nearly twice the warehouse space – now 206,000 sq. ft. – and twice the load positions for conveyable packages, the space can accommodate increased volumes ahead of the peak season, DHL Express said.

The company also installed two state-of-the-art Automated Energy- Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) Machines (RTT) at the Hub, which provides high quality 3D CT images and enables advanced automated explosives detection in a high speed in-line system at the first level of screening.

“A key philosophy for DHL Express is to engineer safety into our facilities, and the expansion was designed to not only provide an environment where our employees can operate safely, but also where they can thrive,” said Mike Parra, CEO, DHL Express Americas.

DHL Express now operates an average of 193 weekly flights (arrivals and departures) at the Miami hub, through a combination of B737F, B757F, B767F, B777F, and A330F aircraft.

By the end of the year, employment at the MIA Hub will increase 70% (YoY) to 731 employees.

In September 2021, DHL Express launched a new facility in Hamilton, Ontario, where it invested C$100 million to build the new facility, four times the size of the original building, to meet a significant increase in shipping volumes.