AaE opens new freight handling facility in Melbourne

Australian air Express (AaE) has officially opened its new domestic freight handling facility at Melbourne Airport.

The $20-million facility at Tullamarine features a covered freight sorting, loading and unloading area of 12,000 sqm to allow more efficient freight handling practices.

At the opening ceremony, AaE chief executive Wayne Dunne said: “I have a tremendous sense of pride as I stand here today; pride because I have witnessed the collaboration from the whole AaE team to make the dream our reality.

“For AaE the success formula is simple: provide a quality, superior and reliable service which can adapt to our customers changing needs.”

The facility is equipped with an automated-sortation system, which has the capacity to sort in excess of 100,000 items of freight each day. It was designed to handle a range of different sized and shaped parcels, satchel, mailbags and tubs at the same time, combining monitoring technologies.

The project followed a comprehensive freight survey, which was analysed by experts at RMIT and AeE staff. A freight properties database was developed to profile freight quantities, arrival times and package types. 

AaE, a joint venture between Qantas and Australia Post, has exclusive access to over 500 daily Qantas and Jetstar passenger flights and its own dedicated freighter aircraft.