DHL Begins Construction Of Nearly $300 Million Maintenance Facility In Cincinnati

As part of its plans to expand operations at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), DHL has started construction of its proposed maintenance facility. The airline wants to accommodate its growing fleet and presence at the airport, and the new infrastructure investment is being made to enable that.

Construction begins

DHL has announced that work has started on its aviation maintenance facility and expanded the aircraft apron at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The facility spans 305,000 sq. ft., and the total cost of the project will be around $292 million.

DHL is aiming for more efficient repairs for its planes at the new facility that will translate into more reliable customer deliveries. Rob Hyslop, EVP Global Aviation, DHL Express, commented,

“Over the last several years, we have been enhancing our network capabilities with newer and more fuel-efficient aircraft, and this new facility complements those efforts with additional space for more aircraft to be maintained at the same time. This translates into faster turnaround times, making the fleet more efficient to handle a growing volume of shipments.”

Features of the new facility

The aviation maintenance hangar is LEED-certified and carbon-neutral and is being erected on an additional 50 acres the airline has leased. The new facility will help generate new job opportunities in the area as it will require an additional workforce of 300 people. Currently, DHL’s CVG hub functions out of 194 acres with 67 aircraft parking gates and 6.4 million sq. ft. of ramp area.

The expansion project will bring about several other benefits, such as making the line maintenance activities weatherproof and taking on the maintenance tasks for DHL’s fleet of 737s, 767s, and 777s. In an official release, DHL has highlighted the following features of the new facility:

• A 50-acre aircraft parking apron with eight new aircraft gates and three new maintenance gates.
• The hangar accommodates two Boeing 777s or four Boeing 767s, with additional space for aircraft component storage.
• Other amenities include GSE staging, underground foam containment, a loading dock and service entrance, a backup generator, HAZMAT storage, a large water tank, offices, and employee parking.

The project was first announced last year, but since then, the estimated costs have gone up. It was earlier expected to be $192 million, but that has now been revised to $292 million to account for local market costs of labor and materials. Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky is certainly happy with the developments and commented,

“I am thrilled to support DHL’s continued growth in our state. This expansion not only brings new jobs to the region, but also strengthens Kentucky’s position as the premier logistics hub in the United States. Thank you to the leaders at DHL for their continued commitment to the commonwealth.”

Other DHL news

Even as it strengthens its operations in Cincinnati, DHL has been busy with other initiatives. Among them is its commitment to sustainable aviation fuel, for which it has collaborated with Formula 1.

The airline recently announced that since March of this year, Formula 1 has been working with DHL Global Forwarding’s GoGreen Plus service to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 80% by using SAF for cargo movements to the Australian Grand Prix. Simple Flying has looked at this in detail in the article below.