DHL Express Mexico has inaugurated its Querétaro Air Hub facilities, tripling the company’s operational capacity at Querétaro International Airport (AIQ) in Mexico’s Bajío region.
The expansion project cost more than US $120 million and included infrastructure expansion and technology upgrades, establishing it as the firm’s most advanced hub in Latin America.
“This hub connects 100,000 packages every night and can connect up to 250,000 packages,” the company’s CEO Antonio Arranz Lara said during the launch on Thursday. “It’s very important to us because it’s the future of DHL Express Mexico,”
Querétaro Governor Mauricio Kuri González attended the event alongside Arranz and DHL Express’s global CEO John Pearson. Kuri symbolically turned on the hub’s mechanical system to inaugurate the facilities.
The upgraded facility has a processing capacity of 41,000 packages per hour. The hub covers over 28,300 square meters, including 15,000 square meters of warehouse space, 13,300 square meters of patio space, 1,200 square meters of office space, 30 airside curtains and 19 landside curtains.
As part of DHL’s “Go Green” strategic line, the project was developed with sustainability in mind. It includes 610 solar panels and a rainwater harvesting system. It was built using local materials and recycled content.
“This not only reaffirms DHL and TL Kapital’s commitment to the environment but also aligns with the airport’s vision of reducing carbon emissions in the short term,” Terminal Logistics Kapital’s general director, Luis Felipe Rivas Villanueva, said.
At present, 12 domestic flights operate daily from DHL Express’s Querétaro Air Hub to the cities of Mérida, Cancún, Monterrey, Ciudad Juárez, Mazatlán, Cabo San Lucas, Torreón, Hermosillo, Chihuahua, Villahermosa, Culiacán and Tijuana, with a total of 33 interconnected cities. There is also one flight a day to the DHL Express hub in Cincinnati in the United States.
DHL Express Mexico first commenced operations at its AIQ strategic location in 2010.
“Since then, we bet on a state that now plays a key role in our operations network, not only at the national level but also internationally,” Arranz said. “This investment is a demonstration of the commitment and confidence we have in the state and in Mexico’s potential for the global logistics sector.”
DHL Express’s CEO John Pearson stressed the importance of Querétaro as a trade hub and a significant region for manufacturing investment and logistics connections.
New air and land routes will be added now that the expansion is complete, as DHL Express aims to enhance connectivity between the Bajío region in central Mexico with the country’s north and south.
With reports from Mexico Industry and El Economista
