Amazon is reportedly partnering with the German-based DHL delivery service for its Prime Air transport operation in Kentucky as well as for Amazon Fresh food deliveries in Germany.
The Lane Report says Amazon will begin processing shipments at DHL’s facility at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport in May. The arrangement would give Amazon a head start on its $1.5 billion plan to use the airport as a major shipping hub for its Prime Air fleet.
DHL would use the facility at night for its own operations, as usual, but let Amazon use it during the day, sources told The Lane Report.
Amazon hasn’t issued any comment on the report, but DHL confirmed that “it has been contracted to provide a range of services to Amazon at the DHL Cincinnati Hub, including sorting operations and ground handling for the Amazon air network.”
Amazon is filling out a leased fleet of 40 Boeing 767 freighters to add to the air delivery service it farms out to such carriers as UPS and FedEx.
Wilmington Air Park in Ohio has been serving as one of the major hubs for Amazon Prime Air, but the focus of that processing operation is expected to shift to Greater Cincinnati’s airport in Northern Kentucky over the next couple of years.
The other Amazon-DHL hook-up was reported by the German newspaper Handelsblatt today. It quoted sources as saying that DHL would become the exclusive supplier for Amazon Fresh food deliveries in Germany.
The delivery service would begin in Berlin next month, and subsequently spread to other German cities, Handelsblatt reported. The newspaper said a logistics center for Amazon Fresh was being built in Munich.
Neither DHL nor Amazon would comment on the report.
