The state of Kentucky is taking more steps to assist Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on its quest to transform itself into a global cargo hub.
Home to an Amazon Air Hub and DHL’s North American Superhub, CVG is one of the fastest-growing cargo airports in the world, having experienced a 149% increase in cargo activity between 2015 and 2022, according to the airport’s website.
On Thursday, the Kentucky Economic Development Financial Authority approved a $3.6 million incentive for constructing an air cargo warehouse facility on the CVG campus.
“Having this type of cargo facility is very necessary,” said CVG’s Director of Strategic Innovation – Advanced Mobility Naashom Marx at yesterday’s financial authority meeting.
Specifically, the type of funding the state doled out came from the Kentucky Product Development Initiative — a program that financially supports upgrading infrastructure on industrial sites throughout the state in the hope that the improvements will help spur economic activity.
So far, the project has courted up to $14.3 million worth of investment.
“Our site development and speed-to-market initiatives are crucial to our long-term success in attracting companies to locate in our communities, bringing with them quality job opportunities,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a press release. “I am thrilled to see these projects moving ahead and look forward to seeing the businesses and companies they attract.”
Dubbed the North Cargo Village Project, the airport is building three cargo forwarding facilities, three freighter facilities and a sorting facility.
Building a cargo village will allow CVG to expand and diversify its cargo operation by allowing the airport to ship large parcels and high-value goods that don’t have time-sensitive delivery requirements. Currently, CVG outsources this type of cargo to larger airports in the Midwest.
Freight forwarders are intermediaries between shipping companies and the cargo’s final destination. Companies will drop off their goods, then the forwarders will help send them on the way to their final destination. Freighter facilities are essentially storage warehouses.
These facilities will be built on an unused rental car parking lot on CVG’s campus’s north side.
The North Cargo Village will allow CVG to store large freight like cars. Amazon and DHL’s facilities primarily focus on the express shipping of smaller packages, so the development of the North Cargo Village would serve as a compliment to those services.
CVG is currently courting freight forwarders, developers, and other organizations interested in operating out of the North Cargo Village in the future.
Currently, CVG is the sixth largest cargo airport in North America and the 12th largest in the world, according to a fall 2023 fact sheet released by CVG.
