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1,000 jobs being cut by Wilmington-based company

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 9:25 AM Friday, July 17, 2009

ABX Air Inc., a Wilmington-based company, which said last week that it would lay off 54 employees, said it will lay off an additional 1,000 workers between next week and Aug. 28 at the U.S. freight hub that it operates for express shipper DHL.

The layoffs include freight sorters and handlers, administrative support and staff who provide services at the DHL-owned Wilmington Air Park airport where the DHL hub is located, ABX Air spokeswoman Beth Huber said Thursday, July 16.

The layoffs are the latest in a series that began last year when DHL announced plans to slash its U.S. overnight delivery network to try and reduce the $1 billion-a-year losses in its U.S. operations. This year, DHL decided to move what is left of the freight operations at Wilmington back to the former location at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, dooming most of the remaining jobs at Wilmington.

Some of ABX Air’s employees will remain to take care of Wilmington Air Park under ABX’s airport services contract with DHL that is to expire Aug. 15, Huber said. ABX is trying to negotiate a new version of that contract with DHL, the airport’s owner, Huber said.

The layoffs will leave about 1,300 ABX employees at Wilmington. The airline still has flight crews, schedulers and administrative staff because it will continue flying cargo for DHL from the Cincinnati airport, as well as handle other contract work for the U.S. Postal Service and charter service customers, Huber said.

The DHL hub had about 8,000 employees and was the Wilmington area’s largest employer before the work force reductions began.

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