UPS Leverages New Hub to Enhance Service in Asia

One year after it opened an ultra-modern air hub in Shenzhen, china, UPS today announced the completion of a robust series of air lane enhancements that have dramatically improved service for customers throughout Asia.

All told, the company has completed improvements to more than 100 intra-Asia lane pairs since it opened the Shenzhen hub last May. The enhancements include faster transit times on key lanes between India and the rest of Asia and between South Korea and other Asian destinations.

Also launching next month will be a direct weekly flight from Guam to Hong Kong, which in turn connects that U.S. territory to the rest of the world.

"The Shenzhen Asia Pacific hub has enabled us to strengthen our entire intra-Asia network," said Derek Woodward, president of UPS's Asia Pacific Region. "Since we relocated our intra-Asia hub to Shenzhen, we have operated more than 5,000 flights to and from this hub. We also have added significant capacity and service improvements to meet the growing needs of businesses to move intra-Asia express and freight volume. And we're not done yet."

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During its first year of operation, the Shenzhen hub made possible multiple service enhancements for customers in Asia Pacific. For example:

• Beijing customers now benefit from improved time-in-transit and later cut-off times to cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo & Osaka.
• The key Indian cities of New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore have seen reduced time-in-transit to destinations like Australia, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Vietnam.
• And shipments bound from Seoul to major cities like Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Singapore and Tokyo now benefit from later cut-off times.

"The biggest winners here are our customers. Their goods either arrive earlier or they can enjoy later pick-up times to accommodate last-minute orders," Woodward added.

"The new Guam flight will offer service to the express package, military and forwarder communities and provide capacity for the burgeoning Asia export market," he continued. "Additionally, the recently announced expansion of the U.S. Marine base on Guam is increasing requests for UPS services there."

UPS will initiate the Guam service using its largest aircraft, the B747-400 freighter, which offers customers 258,000 pounds of payload capacity and is well suited for carrying both small packages and heavy freight required by Guam's shipping and logistics community.

The addition of Guam to the UPS Asia-Pacific portfolio is the latest step in the company's aggressive expansion in that part of the world. Rapid growth in the UPS customer base there recently led the company to add new direct flights between Hong Kong and its European hub in Cologne, Germany, as well as frequencies into Incheon, South Korea, and Tokyo's Narita International Airport. The Hong Kong-to-Cologne flights allow customers to reach more of Europe next day, guaranteed, than any other express carrier.

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The Shenzhen Asia Pacific Hub, located at Shenzhen Baoan International Airport in China's thriving Pearl River Delta, represented an investment of $180 million and immediately slashed at least a day off shipment time-in-transit for customers in the region while offering a new level of service to the manufacturing region located just north of Shenzhen.

The decision to move the intra-Asia hub to Shenzhen was prompted by developing trade flows that now see more than 75 percent of intra-Asia business originating from the North Asian region.

Since taking direct control of its international express operations inside China in 2005, UPS has made significant investments in that country. In 2009, UPS opened its new International Air Hub at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, connecting China to the UPS global air network including U.S. and European destinations. The Shenzhen hub plays a different role by connecting all major Asian points for the transport of intra-Asia volume.

The Shenzhen hub totals about 89,000 square meters in size (almost 1 million square feet) and includes an express customs handling unit, sorting facilities, cargo handling and cargo build-up areas and ramp handling operations. It currently is processing up to 18,000 pieces per hour but can easily be expanded to a capacity of 36,000 pieces per hour. It employs about 400 people.

About UPS
UPS (NYSE: UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including the transportation of packages and freight; the facilitation of international trade, and the deployment of advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS serves more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. The company can be found on the Web at UPS.com and its corporate blog can be found at blog.ups.com. To get UPS news direct, visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS.