Africa's most modern air cargo terminal

Cargo hub for Africa

With a fleet of 24 aircraft, Ethiopian Airlines is the largest airline in Africa. Those responsible at the state-owned airline have set themselves the goal of establishing Addis Ababa as the central freight hub for the African continent. The transportation of perishable goods is playing an increasingly important role in this. Professional storage, complete documentation and fast handling of fresh goods are essential for trade with industrialized countries.

The computer-controlled facility has a capacity of 104,000 tons of freight per year. It has an automatic ULD warehouse with 200 storage locations, 75 of which are refrigerated. These aluminum containers, weighing up to 6.8 tons, are stored and retrieved by two automatic storage and retrieval machines. The brain of the Cargo Terminal is the Inventory Control System (ICS). The control system, which is based on the UniWare software platform, manages all storage location assignments and coordinates the automatic movements.

Scope of services Unitechnik:

Control technology:
4 x Simatic S7-400
Profibus DP

Inventory Control System:
Cluster server
Gigabit LAN and WLAN
Wireless forklift terminals
AWB handling
Web link with customs and
SITA host in London (web services)

Switchgear construction, assembly, training, production support

Overall responsibility:
ICM Airport Technics GmbH (Unitechnik Group)

Completion: 2006