Package delivery specialist UPS is to open its first automated air hub in the UK.

The 30,000 square foot hub, based at Stansted Airport's World Cargo Centre, will open by Christmas.

'We want to be more efficient and expand,' said Graham Nugent, European strategic IS manager.

The hub relies on state-of-the-art 'smart labels' fixed to the top of boxes and envelopes.

Overhead scanners read the labels and allow the packages to be automatically routed around the building for sorting.

'The hub represents a big expansion for UPS in the UK,' said Nugent.

'We've had to grow to meet the demand for services in the South-East.'

The automated sort of capacity of the air hub is 6,000 packages an hour.

This compares with 2,500 packages per hour at UPS's former Stansted facility, which used manual a system.

The Stansted hub's close location to London means packages can be transported into and out of the capital until early in the morning.

The automated hub takes a similar form to UPS' North American operations at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky.

The $1.1.bn (£659m) Worldport air hub at Louisville has a sorting capacity of 304,000 items an hour.

Nugent expects UPS to build similar facilities across Europe as demand dictates.

'It's the shape of things to come,' he said.

'We're trying to grow an international business and we're looking to have more smart, automated facilities in the future.'

UPS invests $1bn (£600m) per year on new technology to deliver parcels and letters faster.

The courier recently announced it had spent $30m (£18m) developing a suite of Package Flow technologies in an attempt to help its delivery drivers work more efficiently.