SATS-owned Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) has opened a 25,400 sq m cargo terminal at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, consolidating its Lyon operations into a single site that now ranks as the handler's second-largest operation in France after Paris Charles de Gaulle.

The Aéroport de Lyon DC1 facility sits in the airport's Cargoport zone and connects directly to the runways. WFS has operated in Lyon since 1971, and the new building consolidates what were previously dispersed operations into one optimised location.

The spec is built for temperature-sensitive and high-value cargo. The terminal includes 4,400 sq m of cold rooms for specialised and sensitive shipments, storage capacity suited to perishables, and 36 door docks handling imports and exports — five of which are dedicated to airfreight pallet transfers. The layout is designed to speed flows between landside access points, handling areas and airside operations.

For WFS' customer base, the implications are direct: the facility supports all 380 WFS customers in the Lyon area, with a design aimed at sectors the Lyon region concentrates heavily in — healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

Laurent Bernard, vice-president of WFS France, said: "Aéroport de Lyon DC1 represents a new milestone for WFS in Lyon, where we first commenced operations in 1971.

"Its design, temperature-controlled areas, and organisation of cargo flows enable us to strengthen our capacity and operational efficiency to handle sensitive and high value goods for our airline and freight forwarder customers.

"Given Lyon's strategically important location, industrial base, and high-value economic sectors, this new generation of logistics infrastructure reinforces Lyon's position in national and European logistics flows and will strengthen the economic attractiveness of the region."

The project brought together four parties: Aéroports de Lyon as airport authority, WFS as operator, Prologis as logistics real estate developer, and the em2c Group handling design, build and technology oversight.

Sustainability features were embedded from the design stage. The hub targets a 'Very Good' BREEAM rating, and the roof is solar-ready, engineered to accommodate a future photovoltaic installation.

Vincent Sadé, vice president, head of capital deployment France at Prologis, framed the project as a shift in how logistics real estate works: "Aéroport de Lyon DC1 illustrates how our business is evolving: beyond the building itself, we design infrastructure that is directly integrated into our customers' operations. Our role was to align the specific constraints of the airport environment, real estate requirements and WFS's operational needs to create a tailored, high-performing solution built to last."

Yvan Patet, president of the em2c Group, said: "The Aéroport de Lyon DC1 project stems from a shared vision among regional and international partners driven by a desire to strengthen the region by incorporating environmental performance from the construction phase onwards. This facility provides a solution tailored to the specific requirements of air freight."

For carriers and forwarders serving Lyon, the terminal adds meaningful cold-chain capacity at France's second-largest air cargo hub. For pharma and perishables shippers in the Rhône-Alpes region, the 4,400 sq m of temperature-controlled space shortens the path from regional production sites to airport ramp.

Cedric Fechter, chairman of the management board of Aéroports de Lyon, positioned the opening within a broader expansion: "The Aéroport de Lyon DC1 facility marks the continued expansion of Cargoport, the freight zone at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport and France's second largest air cargo hub. The result of close collaboration between Prologis, the em2c Group, WFS and Aéroports de Lyon, this project epitomises regional supply chain and significantly strengthens the competitiveness of the region."

The opening signals WFS' continued investment in the French market under SATS ownership, with Lyon now firmly established as the group's second French pole behind CDG — and the Cargoport zone's expansion points to further capacity growth at Lyon as pharmaceutical and high-value air freight demand concentrates around the region's industrial base.