Amazon opened a new $1.5B air hub in Kentucky

There’s nothing that online shoppers prefer more than timely deliveries, and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) continues to tap on the opportunity. On Wednesday, the eCommerce giant hit the next milestone for Amazon Air as it opened a $1.5 billion air hub in northern Kentucky.

More U.S. customers to enjoy one-day and same-day delivery

The new hub that spans over 600 acres is ideally located to connect more closely to customers across the United States, as per vice president Sarah Rhoads of Amazon Global Air. It has a capacity to process millions of packages per day, making Amazon’s exciting one-day and same-day delivery services available to more online buyers in the U.S.

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The Kentucky hub also establishes the tech giant’s aviation logistics unit as more serious competition for the likes of FedEx and UPS. In her interview with CNBC, however, Rhoads said the sole purpose of the new hub is only to serve Amazon customers better.

Amazon Air currently operates from over 40 U.S. airports. As of November 2020, it also has a hub at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany. The Seattle-based company had announced plans of opening a central air hub in northern Kentucky in 2017, and the former CEO and founder Jeff Bezos had broken ground in 2019.

Amazon to expand its Air fleet by more than ten cargo planes

The American multinational has invested heavily into robotics for optimum efficiency at its new hub that is expected to later employ over 2,000 people.

Amazon added eleven owned aircraft to its cargo network earlier this year, which now has more than 75 aircraft in the fleet (both owned and leased). By the end of 2022, Amazon Air wants to expand its fleet further by more than 10 cargo planes.

Amazon shares are down more than 1.0% on the intraday chart. The $1.67 trillion company has a price to earnings ratio of 57.34.