[Stardust]

A few jobs come back to the Commonwealth

ERLANGER – International shipping giant DHL makes its return to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport early this morning and then in full force early Monday morning after a four-year abortive effort to create a domestic shipping business out of Wilmington.



The German-based carrier will operate a light schedule after 12 a.m. Saturday, with a full schedule to start between 12-4 a.m. Monday.

DHL will operate about 30 daily departures, after previously handling nearly 60 daily out of its CVG hub. Before its move north to Clinton County in 2005, the company had operated at CVG for 22 years, only to give it a try out of the private airport in Wilmington.

DHL, which bought the Wilmington facility from Airborne Express for $1.05 billion in 2003, ended its its sorting operations there early Friday.

Company officials won’t give specifics, but say that the hub here will be initially processing fewer than 100,000 packages, far less than the building’s 250,000 package/3 million pound capacity. The resumed operation adds 187 full time workers to the 200 already present, and the company has hired about 650 part-time workers to handle overnight sorting.