DHL heralds expansion of U.S. hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport

Global logistics and express delivery provider DHL heralded the completion of the $22 million expansion of the company’s hub in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport (CVG) earlier this month.

This hub expansion was built on 19 acres and involved widening the existing parking apron to allow for nine additional wide-body aircrafts and nine new aircraft gates, according to a report in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Vice President of DHL Americas Hubs, Network Control and Gateways Travis Cobb said in the report that this expansion would improve hub operations and capacity, as well as help DHL expand its reach into Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
DHL moved its U.S. hub operations to CVG in July 2009. DHL’s U.S. business focuses on international import and export offerings in major metropolitan areas. It ceased U.S. domestic-only air and ground services at the end of January 2009, due largely to the ongoing uphill battle it faced competing with industry giants UPS and FedEx for market share.

A DHL spokesman told LM earlier this year that this expansion was driven by the successful realignment of its business to focus exclusively on international services and growth in its import and export business, leading to “a need to continue to adjust its operation to meet the growing demands of international shipping customers.”

The spokesperson added the CVG expansion positions DHL’s largest facility in North America for continued growth in package volume. But even with this expansion growth the company has no plans to return to serving the U.S. domestic market

Company officials said this $22 million investment is the second phase of a two-year, $40 million investment geared to improve hub operations, including equipment upgrades and facility improvements.

DHL spokesman Robert Mintz told LM that this expansion will enable DHL to have 78 DHL flights per day operate to and from the CVG hub, connecting shipments to points across the U.S. as well as throughout the globe with direct flights to cities in Europe, Asia, Mexico, Canada and Central America. 

And he said that there is more to come out of CVG, too. 

“In 2012, we will announce further Infrastructure development at CVG Hub that will continue to expand our operational capabilities to handle our growing customer shipment volumes and requirements as well as will bring more jobs and aircraft to the CVG Hub and CVG INTL Airport,” said Mintz. “As businesses increasingly go global to capitalize on emerging trends in International trade, the expansion at our CVG hub positions DHL to accommodate the growing needs and demands of our customers.

And since DHL reopened operations at CVG in 2009, Mintz said DHL has seen its international business grow dramatically, benefitting not only DHL but the local community with job growth and the Cincinnati / Northern KY International Airport with additional flights.

In June, DHL began service for new, next-day intercontinental flights between the U.S. and the Middle East and Asia-Pacific to the U.S., with a new dedicated Boeing 747-400F aircraft operated by Polar Air Cargo connecting the DHL Cincinnati (CVG) hub with the Bahrain (BAH) and Hong Kong (HK) hubs, providing an additional cargo capacity of 80 tons. 

And in September it rolled out new flights between its Cincinnati and Panama hubs effective September 6. These new direct flights will improve delivery times by one full day from any location in the U.S., Canada, Asia and the Caribbean Islands to Panama and from Panama to all global DHL destinations, according to DHL officials.