Amazon will invest $1.49 billion in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport for its first air cargo hub. According to Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations, the move by the tech-giant is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs.
Amazon’s Prime Air hub in Hebron, KY will support the Seattle based e-retailer’s fleet of Prime Air cargo planes by loading, unloading and sorting packages.
According to the company’s press release, they began leasing 40 planes for their Amazon Prime shipping service with 16 currently in operation.
The decision to build the the hub in Cincinnati is a disappointment to officials at the Wilmington Air Park in Wilmington which has been managing an air-transport network for Amazon for more than a year. In a released statement, Amazon says the Wilmington Air Park was not the “ideal location” for the hub.
Amazon says about 300 Wilmington Air Park employees will be presented job opportunities to any of their sites across the U.S.
The company previously announced their plans to produce 100,000+ jobs in the U.S. over the next 18 months.