One of the largest worldwide e-tailer Amazon.com is investing $1.49 billion to move its Prime Air cargo hub to another airport and plans to schedule more than 200 flight departures and landings per day.
Amazon’s fleet of 16 leased Boeing 767 cargo jets is stationed at Wilmington Air Park in Ohio, which was looking to expand operations by reopening a second runway.
But Amazon will move the freighter jets to a new 2,700-employee hub on nearly 900 acres at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), according to the Business Journal in Cincinnati.
Kentucky International Airport officials approved $40 million in tax incentives for the Amazon project on Tuesday.
Amazon’s aircraft will have more than 200 daily takeoffs and landings. When Amazon begins flying from CVG in the spring, it will use global shipping giant DHL’s facilities while it plans and builds:
- A 3 million-square-foot building
- A 350,000-square-foot loading wing
- Some smaller accessory buildings
- 100-plus aircraft parking positions
Amazon said it would offer jobs at other sites to package sorting employees at the Ohio airport.
Seattle-based Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) leases the Boeing 767 wide-body freighters for package delivery through air cargo partners Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ATSG) and Air Transport Services Group (Nasdaq: ATSG). Amazon bought a 10 percent stake in Wilmington-based ATSG in March.
The first of the fleet, Amazon One, debuted at Seattle’s 2016 Seafair Air Show. About a dozen of the aircraft were in operation at the time.
