CVG 2.0: From Passenger Hub to Cargo Hub
Spring 2017 LA 537 Logistical Ecologies: Reading the Operational Landscape, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Project Location: Hebron, KY, USA
This project highlights the networks and processes implicated in the supply chain of multinational corporations.
CVG 2.0 investigates Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport’s (CVG) transition from a passenger hub to a cargo hub, and the subsequent logistical landscape growing on and around airport property. The airport is the largest global hub for DHL, and with Amazon Prime Air investing $1.49-billion into the airport to create a worldwide shipping hub, beginning operations in 2017, CVG has become the fastest-growing cargo airport in North America. With the subsequent “Amazonification” of the airport and its surrounding landscape, CVG exemplifies one of the emergent categories of logistical landscapes, distribution and delivery. This project considers the externalities and spatial consequences that reflect the tension between global and local economies, illustrating how future growth around the airport can be influenced. CVG 2.0 was featured as a Logistical Ecology case study at the Landscape Strategies Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
CVG’s Rise to Cargo Operations Flying in the United States changed drastically after the airline deregulation, evolving towards a dominance by big carriers along a path of mergers and acquisitions, consolidating their hub cities and dehubbing airports along the way, specifically within the Midwest and Rust Belt regions. With Delta drastically scaling back hub operations and capacity at CVG following their merger with Northwest Airlines, it was inevitable that the airport needed to reinvent itself.
CVG Logistics Landscape CVG serves as the ninth largest passenger hub for Delta Air Lines, the largest global cargo hub for DHL, as well as the main hub for Amazon Prime Air.
“Amazonification” of the CVG Landscape CVG is the fastest-growing cargo airport in North America.
Common Airplane Types at CVG Through hub operations of Delta, DHL and Amazon Prime Air.
FEDEX CARGO HUB MEM: Memphis, Tennessee USA
UPS CARGO HUB SDF: Louisville, Kentucky, USA