Federal Express has opened an automated sorting facility at Tallinn, Estonia. The new site, the first on the south side of the new Airport City development at the Estonian gateway, combines ground and air services and triples space compared with previous sites in the region and has a capacity of up to 3,000 parcels per hour.
Installed technology includes multi-sided scanning that captures package dimensions and barcode data from all angles. The facility enjoys direct access to the airport, where FedEx operates a daily service to and from its main European hub, Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, with connections to the US and Asia.
FedEx Europe vice president of ground operations, Nordics and Eastern Europe, Mariusz Mik, said the new facility would support Estonia’s growing e-commerce sector and allow local entrepreneurs to reach customers in over 220 markets worldwide.
Chief executive of the Estonian E-Commerce Association, Tõnu Väät, put annual e-commerce growth in Estonia at 20% with annual turnover now topping €5 billion.
He added that while there was still room for growth in Estonian exports, especially e-commerce, one obstacle had been the high cost of logistics due to the relatively small volumes, which made shipping expensive.
He said: “That’s why we welcome the opening of the new FedEx logistics centre in Tallinn and hope that, in light of this recent development, we’ll also be able to offer Estonian e-merchants more competitive prices that support growth.”
Earlier this month, FedEx opened a new, 19,000 sq ft cargo handling facility at the UK’s East Midlands Airport (EMA).