Dhl Express has officially opened its new international hub at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport, completed in under two years with an investment of 80 million euros. The facility was designed to accommodate the growth in international express volumes recorded by the multinational in recent years and replaces the previous site, boosting sorting capacity by a factor of seven. It can now handle over 20,000 shipments per hour, with integrated customs clearance and state-of-the-art X-ray security systems.
Covering an area of 29,000 square metres, the new facility includes 10,000 square metres of warehouse space and 3,000 square metres of offices. It is equipped with 22 loading and nine unloading positions for air containers, as well as 24 truck bays that support the daily dispatch of 120 vans for collection and delivery operations. Its location enables the connection of air routes with Europe, the Americas and North Africa, serving in particular Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises, more than 20,000 of which already work with Dhl Express.
According to company data, activity in Barcelona grew by 30 per cent over the past five years, driven mainly by international e-commerce, before stabilising due to the slowdown in global trade. The new hub has been planned with a 20-year horizon to adapt to future traffic flows without disrupting operations.
In addition to serving as an import and export centre, the hub represents an investment in sustainability. It features a photovoltaic system for self-consumption, 37 charging stations for service vehicles and the capacity to electrify up to two-thirds of the fleet. Other measures include grey water recovery, intelligent energy management systems and LED lighting with motion sensors.
Dhl Express currently operates ten daily flights from Barcelona, alongside six intercontinental connections on commercial flights. Two additional network flights and further intercontinental links are expected. In Spain, the company runs three main hubs in Barcelona, Madrid and Vitoria, six national gateways and a fleet of sixteen aircraft that manage more than 40 daily flights on 26 routes.
The opening of the El Prat hub is part of a wider investment plan in Spain. A new operations site in Girona is due to open shortly, while more than 40 million euros have been allocated to build, by 2027, Europe’s second-largest aircraft maintenance hangar in Vitoria, second only to the one in Leipzig. These initiatives strengthen Spain’s role in Dhl Express’s global network. The company, which has been operating in Spain since 1979, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 29 million tonnes by 2030, with a target of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
