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May 06, 2021 (newstodate): The cargo profile of Latvia's Riga Airport will soon be further sharpened with the opening of a new DHL Express facility by the end of Q2, 2021.
  –The new 4,400 m2 facility including a 2,200 m2 terminal will introduce up-to-date technical equipment for shipment processing, including an auto sorting system with capacity to sorting more than 3,700 pieces per hour, as well as additional x-ray for pallets, weight and dimension scale, says Natalia Mihailova, DHL Express Network Operations Director in Latvia.
   -Responding to the fact that the current facility had reached the capacity, the DPDHL Board took the decision to support the growing DHL Latvia market and invest in a new facility.  
   -We expect business to grow by 15 percent during the upcoming years, although it is of course hard to predict the behavior on the market due to Covid-19, says Ms Mihailova.
   The coming DHL Express facility benefits from a new specialized cargo handling apron at Riga Airport, officially commissioned on October 16, 2020.
   The 95,000 m2 apron is directly connected to the area dedicated by Riga Airport to the development of a coming cargo city and logistics center.
   In April 2021, airBaltic emerged as the winner of a tender opened in November 2020 for the area dedicated by Riga Airport to the construction of an air cargo service and logistics center, gaining the opportunity to acquire building rights for 30 years to a plot of land in an area of 1.5 hectares in the northern part of the Airport territory as part of the RIX Cargo City.   
   With 6,000 m2 floor space, the new cargo terminal will be the largest dedicated air cargo handling facility in the Baltics, designed for handling of up to 30,000 tonnes of cargo annually, and to be operated by airBaltic's cargo handling subsidiary, Baltic Cargo Center.
   Construction works will commence by late 2022 and will be completed by early 2024.