Amazon’s delivery network in the US got a major boost this week thanks to a huge Air Hub opening at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
The hub has been built from the ground up by Amazon over the past two years with an investment of around $1.5 billion. The end result is a facility that’s 600 acres in size and will handle “a dozen flights per day and process millions of packages every week” before the end of the year. Amazon says the hub connects a network of 40 sites together where Amazon Air exists and operates.
As well as helping Amazon to handle more orders, the hub is good news for the local economy as it’s creating 2,000 jobs. Some of those will be filled by existing Amazon employees transferring over, but there’s many new roles set to be offered at the facility. Robots also feature in both the transport and sorting of packages on-site.
Amazon’s focus in recent years has been to add aircraft to its fleet of Amazon-branded aircraft. The fleet expanded by 50 aircraft in 2018 and a further 15 cargo planes were introduced the following year. With the Air Hub becoming operational, a further fleet expansion wouldn’t be surprising. That’s not to say development at the hub has now ended, though. Amazon is planning a solar rooftop panel installation over the next year.
