E-commerce giant Amazon is readying to open a new regional air hub
The online retailer created Amazon Air to bring its air shipping and distribution in-house, giving Amazon an envious position in the retail industry, which has been rapidly changing with e-commerce. Operations are scheduled to begin next month at the new regional air cargo hub, touted for being the “first of its kind,” at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport, which is the world’s first industrial airport dedicated to shipping, corporate and military flights.
Amazon has hired full-time workers for the new
The facility is Amazon’s “latest investment in Texas,” and will help
The Fort Worth facility was built specifically with the “future in mind,” Rhoads previously
Amazon Air, which launched in 2016, has major plans at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport in Hebron, Kentucky, and at Chicago Rockford International Airport in Rockford, Illinois, between Chicago and Milwaukee. The logistics airline, which operates over 45 Boeing 767 airplanes in more than 20 gateways in the United States, plans to open the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport in 2021.
By creating its own logistics network, Amazon is expected to save, according to a Morgan Stanley analyst, between $1 billion and $2
Memphis-based shipping giant FedEx ended its ground-shipping relationship with Amazon in August. Both downplayed the significance of the breakup, with each noting they were a small piece of the other’s business. But in its July annual report, FedEx noted the competition from high-volume shippers, specifically mentioning Amazon.
Since beginning to invest in Texas, Amazon has created more than 22,000 full-time jobs in Texas and invested more than $10 billion since 2010. That investment includes fulfillment centers throughout the state,
Dallas-Fort Worth, including Alliance Airport, is a top U.S. distribution market. According to CoStar data, the runway expansion at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport taking its runway from 9,600 feet to 11,000 feet in early 2018 helped spur development, such as Amazon Air’s new regional air hub, in this part of the region.