1,000 new jobs hope at East Midlands Airport as UPS unveils 114m parcel depot plans

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The parcel giant's plans would be the biggest it has ever undertaken

One of the world’s biggest parcel delivery companies hopes to create more than 1,000 jobs at East Midlands Airport, it announced today.

UPS is planning to build a new £100 million-plus air freight terminal with a vast new sorting and delivery complex. It would be on a 28.5 acre plot on the eastern side of the airport.


The airport is already UPS’s biggest air gateway in Britain, and its second biggest in Europe, after Cologne.

Its current hub covers 86,000 sq ft and employs 342 package handlers, screeners, clerical workers, support staff, team leaders, supervisors and a manager.

Over the past 10 years it has processed 100 million packages there, serviced by six flights every day.

It is understood the parcel giant could invest up to £114 million in the new site – making it one of the biggest projects it has ever undertaken.


The site, between the airport and M1 is next to Pegasus Business Park, and currently used for parking.

UPS documents say it would speed up its operations at the airport and provide it with room for growth.

The main hub would have more than 450,000sq ft of floor space.

A smaller office building to the east of the main hub would have 28,000 sq ft of floor space.

The business is staying tight lipped about the plans, but documents submitted to North West Leicestershire District Council show it would include:

• Parcel sorting and distribution

• Offices, meeting rooms, training rooms, conference rooms

• IT comms rooms, control room

• Vehicle and aircraft maintenance facilities

Expansion and new destinations could be on the way at East Midlands Airport

In a statement a UPS spokeswoman said: “UPS is always looking to make strategic investments that provide opportunities to grow our business and to strengthen the services and solutions that we bring to our customers.

“We can confirm that planning permission has been submitted for expansion of our operations at the East Midlands Airport.

“Given that the planning stage is not finalised at this time, we are not able to provide further specifics.”

East Midlands Airport is already the UK’s busiest pure cargo airport, second only to Heathrow – handling more than 320,000 tonnes of flown cargo every year.

The airport hopes to triple freight shipments to one million tonnes a year within the next 10-20 years.

Disruptive passenger kicked off plane by police at East Midlands Airport

It is already a UK hub for UPS, and provides support operations for TNT and Royal Mail.

Last year DHL opened a £90 million extension to its huge depot on the site.

Airport managing director Andy Cliffe said the whole site employs around 7,000 people – including 600 staff directly employed by the airport – and there were big expansion plans, despite the uncertainties of Brexit.

He said: “There are still very positive growth conversations at the airport – UPS has recently submitted £100 million plans for a new parcel distribution facility here.

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And this when Royal Mail are likely to leave East Midlands and all other airport for their internal flights.