See inside Amazon's massive new 'air hub' in Kentucky, a $1.5 billion facility that will help it get packages to customers faster

Avery HartmansAug 12, 2021, 00:51 IST

An Amazon plane parked at the company's new Kentucky Air Hub.Amazon

Amazon's massive new Air Hub in Kentucky is officially operational, the company announced Wednesday.
The $1.5 million, 800,000-square-foot facility will help Amazon deliver packages faster.
Amazon says the new facility will create more than 2,000 jobs in northern Kentucky.

Operations are officially underway at Amazon's massive new air hub in Kentucky.

The 800,000-square-foot facility will serve as the heart of Amazon's air cargo network in the US, helping to ensure that packages are delivered quickly nationwide.

The new hub is a massive undertaking for the ecommerce giant. Announced in February 2017, the $1.5 billion hub is a sign of the potential scale of Amazon's logistics ambitions. According to Reuters, it's similar in scale to hubs of other cargo airlines and signifies Amazon's push to move more of its delivery operations in-house rather than rely solely on third-party carriers.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos himself broke ground on the facility in 2019, moving a load of dirt with a front loader.

"This hub is going to let us get packages to customers faster, and that's a big deal," Bezos said at the time, according to Cincinnati's WCPO-TV. "We're going to move Prime from two day to one day, and this hub is a big part of that."

Amazon says the new facility will create more than 2,000 jobs in northern Kentucky in areas like load planning, management of package sortation, and robotics technology.

As operations ramp up at the new facility, here's a look inside.

Amazon Air Hub is situated on 600 acres at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Amazon

The facility is made up of seven buildings, including an aircraft parking ramp and a multi-story vehicle parking structure. It will eventually have a solar roof that will feed into the local electrical grid, Amazon says.

Amazon

The facility is made up of seven buildings, including an aircraft parking ramp and a multi-story vehicle parking structure. It will eventually have a solar roof that will feed into the local electrical grid, Amazon says.

Like Amazon's fulfillment centers nationwide, the facility will be partly powered by robots that sort and transport packages throughout the campus.

Amazon

The campus is also equipped with miles of conveyors, interlinked throughout the facility.

Amazon

Amazon says the facility will eventually process millions of packages each week ...

Amazon

... and operate roughly a dozen flights per day. The hub is designed to have capacity for 100 planes and could handle as many as 200 flights each day, according to CNBC.

Amazon

... and operate roughly a dozen flights per day. The hub is designed to have capacity for 100 planes and could handle as many as 200 flights each day, according to CNBC.

Amazon Air has expanded rapidly, leading industry experts to speculate that Amazon's fleet could soon rival carriers like FedEx and UPS, and that Amazon could create its own delivery business for items purchased outside of its platform.

Amazon

Amazon Air has expanded rapidly, leading industry experts to speculate that Amazon's fleet could soon rival carriers like FedEx and UPS, and that Amazon could create its own delivery business for items purchased outside of its platform.

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See inside Amazon's massive new 'air hub' in Kentucky, a $1.5 billion facility that will help it get packages to customers faster

Amazon Air Hub is situated on 600 acres at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

The facility is made up of seven buildings, including an aircraft parking ramp and a multi-story vehicle parking structure. It will eventually have a solar roof that will feed into the local electrical grid, Amazon says.

Like Amazon's fulfillment centers nationwide, the facility will be partly powered by robots that sort and transport packages throughout the campus.

The campus is also equipped with miles of conveyors, interlinked throughout the facility.

Amazon says the facility will eventually process millions of packages each week ...

... and operate roughly a dozen flights per day. The hub is designed to have capacity for 100 planes and could handle as many as 200 flights each day, according to CNBC.

Amazon Air has expanded rapidly, leading industry experts to speculate that Amazon's fleet could soon rival carriers like FedEx and UPS, and that Amazon could create its own delivery business for items purchased outside of its platform.