Last week, DHL celebrated its 40th anniversary at Brussels Airport with four staff-only parties as well as a book. As an airline, DHL boasts the longest uninterrupted air operation at Brussels airport. However, DHL was not the only company to celebrate, as five other players moved into their new premises in the historic center of BRUcargo.
DHL indeed touched down in Brussels in the fall of 1985, when it was still owned by the original founders, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn. In 2004, Deutsche Post (DP), which had acquired full ownership of DHL in 2003, wanted to develop the regional DHL Express hub into a European intercontinental platform, provided the number of night operations could be increased from 14,000 to 22,000 over the next four years to come.
The project met with severe opposition from and within the Belgian federal government. The then-minister for Public Enterprises, Johan Vande Lanotte (Socialist Party), was inclined to grant the project if Deutsche Post were willing to substitute the existing MD-11s with quieter aircraft.
According to DP, this was not possible in the near future. Eventually the discussion made the Environmental coalition partner quit the government two weeks before the elections.
New distribution center opened in 2018
DP then decided to move the project to Leipzig, where the new hub was opened in 2008. Instead of bringing 1,400 additional jobs to Brussels, the downsizing of the hub cost up to 1,700 jobs. In 2018, DHL opened a new Brussels distribution center, tripling its handling capacity.
Today, Brussels is the group’s fourth biggest air cargo center worldwide, employing around 1,600 people. In 2017, a state-of-the-art warehouse was opened, handling an average of 200,000 consignments daily. Six out of ten have their origin in Belgium or neighboring regions in France and the Netherlands.
Critical link
“Over the last 40 years and especially since 2010, we have grown into a critical link in the processes of many Belgian companies. Some examples of time-critical consignments that we ship from Brussels Airport by air – the fastest way – are radioactive isotopes for cancer treatment, which lose their effectiveness quite soon, tailormade stents for heart surgery, and crucial spare parts for machinery sitting idle somewhere in the world,” says DHL Aviation’s CEO, Kirsten Carlier.
The entire staff was given the opportunity to attend one of four staff parties, as time-critical consignments cannot be halted. Each co-worker was given a book written by one of the first-generation staff members, Michel Smout (Number 29 of the total of 1,600 employees now), in collaboration with the present Public Affairs Director, Lorenzo Van de Pol, one of the youngest in the company. The book is published in Dutch only, under the title ‘In het holst van de nacht: 40 jaar DHL op Zaventem (In the dead [or course] of the night: 40 of years of DHL in Zaventem).
BRUcargo Central redevelopment takes shape
The anniversary of DHL was not the only cause for celebration at Brussels Airport. In the historical center of the cargo village, the 83,500 m²-wide BRUcargo Central, and three state-of-the art buildings totaling 34,000 m² of warehouses and offices, were officially inaugurated. Groundbreaking work started in 2023 as part of the redevelopment of the zone.The new constructions increase BRUcargo Central’s storage capacity by 30% and bring an additional 10,000 m² of temperature-controlled space. The three new buildings will house five major logistics companies, all already active at Brussels Airport, representing a mix of major international players and local SME: Nippon Express; DSV Air & Sea NV; Hazgo, part of SGS, the world’s leading testing, inspection, and certification company; EV Cargo, a global supply chain player that confirms its growth ambitions at Brussels Airport, and Deny Cargo, a pioneer in the cargo zone since the 1980s.
