UNITED Parcel Service (UPS) has opened a new $80-million (about P5.04 billion) international air hub at Clark Airport in Pampanga as the logistics company continues to further expand operations in Asia-Pacific and strengthen its services across more than 1,000 global trade lanes.
Measuring 30,000 square meters, the new hub is 15 times larger than the first Clark facility UPS established in 2002, enabling a ninefold increase in average daily handling capacity to 46,000 packages from around 5,000 before.
Maximum processing capacity is seen going up 12 times to 15,000 packages per hour from 1,250 packages previously.
“With this new expansion, UPS is now able to enhance its service for pickup times and transit times to over 1,100 freight lanes. And the biggest beneficiary of that is not just the Philippines, but also our global customer base,” UPS Clark International Hub General Manager Albert Sapaen Jr. told a media briefing late Tuesday.
UPS President for Asia-Pacific Operations and Strategy Daryl Tay said: “Asia continues to be central, I would say, as an engine for growth. If you look at China, it will continue to be a major powerhouse in manufacturing.”
“And if we look at shifts in trends, customers around the world look at having more supply chain resilience, and it leads to them looking at how do they reconfigure their supply chains,” he added.
“And as a result, I would say there are opportunities for us to invest more in Asia-Pacific not just for the short term but also for the longer term as well.”
The new hub houses three refrigeration and freezer units with a range of from minus 20 Celsius to 25 Celsius, dedicated re-icing capability and UPS Premier RFID technology to provide priority handling and enhanced visibility for critical and temperature-sensitive health care shipments.
It also features an automated sorting system using smart technology to process up to 9,000 small packages per hour. Its ramp operations use a fleet of electric ground servicing equipment, including cargo tractors, belt and cargo loaders, ground processing units and forklifts.
UPS said the Clark hub represents one of its latest network and facility enhancements across Asia-Pacific.
