DHL could move to Leipzig

5 February 2004

BRUSSELS – International courier firm DHL could pack up shop and move to the German airport of Leipzig unless plans to expand its operations at Zaventem airport outside of Brussels are approved soon, La Libre Belgique newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the newspaper the German post office Deutsche Post, which owns DHL, has already decided to base many of its own logistical operations at Leipzig and it could order its subsidiary to follow suite.

But DHL insists that its owners have not ordered it to move.

“We have not yet taken a decision on the name of the airport that will house DHL when we expand. But the management has already made it clear that it supports the Belgian federal government, which has assured us that it will do all it can to ensure DHL can develop at Zaventem or failing that another Belgian airport,” DHL’s commercial director Xavier de Buck told La Libre Belgique.

DHL says expanding its Zaventem operations would create thousands of jobs.

But local residents fear the move would mean increased aircraft noise around the airport, especially at night.

Subject: Belgian news