DHL EXPRESS (USA) will lease half the Air Cargo Building at Toledo airport's north side for three years to be used to transfer its air freight from nine weekly flights to Toledo itself, Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

    County Port authority president Paul Toth said DHL had flown Michigan freight in and out of Toledo by booking space on BAX Global flights. When BAX Global announced it was shutting down its Toledo cargo hub in September, DHL decided to go it alone and retain its Toledo base, he said.

    Under DHL contractor Integrated Airline Services, the facility employs 25 in a mix of full-time and part-time positions at start up this week, said airport manager Steve Arnold, reported the Toledo Blade newspaper.

    "It's good to get some good news out there," Jerry Chabler, the airport committee's chairman, reflecting on expectations that DHL would generate US$200,000 a year to the port authority, including aircraft landing and apron-use fees.

    BAX, the former Burlington Air Express, pulled out of Toledo Express after 20 years, during which it operated 44 flights a day and employed 800. Parent company DB Schenker attributed the closing to fundamental shifts in freight handling that favour ground transport over air cargo.

    US operations at the hub have already declined to 19 flights, five nights a week, and employment had declined to about 700, mostly part-time, workers, when the shutdown was announced.

(source:http://www.shippingonline.cn/news/newsList.asp?classname=Newsm)