Northern Kentucky is now home to Amazon Air's primary U.S. cargo hub.
After breaking ground in 2019, the mega-corporation's airborne shipping operation opened today at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) and will process "millions of customer packages per week," Amazon says.
According to a release, the new 800,000-square-foot enterprise is on a 600-acre, seven-building campus and features "the innovative use of robotics technology," including robotic arms and miles of conveyor belts to help move packages across the expanse.
“The Amazon Air Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport will make Kentucky the undisputed national leader in air cargo,” said Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear in a release. “In addition to creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs, this hub puts Kentucky at the center of Amazon’s U.S. distribution network. Across the coming years, Amazon Air will help attract more manufacturers, service providers, and tech companies to Kentucky seeking to take similar advantage of our key geographic location."
Amazon says they are investing $1.5 billion into Northern Kentucky, and are offering "thousands of jobs" in fields including load planning and robotics tech. (A release also mentions "ergonomic workstations" for employees.) Amazon also plans to install solar panels on the roof of the CVG location in the coming year, which will feed energy into the local electrical grid.
“We’re excited to get rolling in Northern Kentucky, and we’re thrilled to employ thousands of fantastic people from the area in this next-generation, highly sophisticated facility that will connect our air cargo network for years to come," said Vice President of Amazon Global Air Sarah Rhoads in the release.
Kentucky is home to more than a dozen Amazon fulfillment centers, including a 575,000-square-foot sort center that opened in Northern Kentucky in September 2020. Amazon also recently opened a "state-of-the-art diagnostics laboratory in Hebron, Kentucky, that processed millions of COVID-19 tests for front-line employees and recently expanded testing capability to support customers," per the release.
Amazon says that since 2010, they have created more than 18,000 jobs in the Kentucky — plus 49,000 indirect positions — and invested more than $20 billion "both in infrastructure and compensation for local employees" in the state.
Amazon Air is Amazon's own cargo airline offshoot that deals specifically with package transport, with 40 U.S. locations and a European center in Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport.
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