ACUNIS builds cargo terminal at Nairobi airport

Logistics services provider Mitchell Cotts has expanded its capacity at the Nairobi airport, Kenya.
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The company has commissioned a new cargo terminal for perishables and dry cargo. In its first construction stage, the facility is designed for an annual throughput of 80,000 tons. Plans are already in place to expand to 150,000 tons per year. ACUNIS, a joint venture of Unitechnik and AMOVA specialising in air cargo, is responsible for implementing the project. Delivery of the 9,000 m² terminal is scheduled for May 2017.

The new cargo terminal at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi lets service providers import and export different types of commodities as well as export perishable goods such as fruit, vegetables and spices even faster and more efficiently in the future. One of the major challenges of building a new terminal was integrating all of the required areas such as warehouse space and break rooms/communal areas as well as customs clearance in the relatively dense overall available space. The solution foresees dividing the facility into two separate storage areas with virtually identical layout, one for dry goods and another for perishables. The latter is installed in a cold storage warehouse capable of regulating temperatures down to 2°C.

Each storage area includes a high-bay store (HBS), a Euro pallet store, a small parts warehouse as well as a section for bulky goods. Air cargo containers (unit load devices, ULD) measuring up to 15 feet and weighing a maximum of 6.8 tons are stocked in the HBS. To use the existing space optimally, the HBS is offset so that it is three levels high on the land side and four levels high on the air side. Two elevating transfer vehicles (ETV) from ACUNIS are used to store and retrieve ULDs at heights of up to 10 meters. As an air cargo specialist, ACUNIS is also supplying the conveying and handling systems for completion of the terminal's interior, such as roller conveyors and industrial trucks, work stations as well as loading and unloading bridges for trucks.