Amazon on Wednesday began operations from its new air hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport after more than four years of planning and construction. The operation will serve as the central hub for Amazon Air’s U.S. cargo network.
The $1.5 billion investment included a new ramp for aircraft parking and an 800,000-square-foot sorting facility situated on a 600-acre campus. Amazon Air has expanded its presence in the U.S. to more than 40 locations and launched its European air hub in 2020 at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport.
In January, Amazon bought seven Boeing 767-300s from Delta Air Lines and four from Canada’s WestJet as it moved to expand its air transport network to meet surging demand during the Covid-19 crisis and beyond. These deals marked the online retailer’s first direct aircraft purchases. The four former WestJet aircraft, which underwent passenger-to-cargo conversion, have joined Amazon’s network and the ex-Delta jets will begin flying freight for the online retailer in 2022, the company added. All will fly for third-party carriers.
Amazon launched its air transport subsidiary as a means to circumvent and compete against freight giants such as UPS and FedEx Express in 2016, when it signed a seven-year lease deal covering 20 Boeing 767s with Delaware-based air cargo service provider ATSG. Company subsidiaries ABX Air, a Part 121 cargo airline, and charter carrier Air Transport International, operate the airplanes for Amazon. That same year Atlas Air Worldwide signed a deal with Amazon to fly 20 Boeing 767-300s for the online retailer under a 10-year lease deal that grants Amazon rights to acquire as much as 30 percent of the cargo carrier.
Amazon’s contract carriers now fly a total of 73 airplanes, including 22 Boeing 737-800BCFs.