DHL Stays with ABX
12/15/2008
Traffic World Staff
DHL Express, unable to reach an early agreement to switch its air linehaul services in the United States to UPS, will continue to use ABX Air aircraft for its scaled back services in the United States through at least next June.
ABX Air parent Air Transport Services Group announced the extended agreement with DHL late Friday as it disclosed deep cutbacks coming Jan. 4 in the express network it operates for DHL out of a base in Wilmington, Ohio.
ABX will cut 1,900 jobs at that time, including 1,000 at the Wilmington hub, as DHL undertakes its withdrawal from U.S. domestic service. It will also include dropping all the DC-9 narrowbody freighters ABX operates for DHL in the United States by the end of January.
But Joe Hete, president and CEO of ABX parent ATSG, said DHL will not switch as earlier announced to UPS for the scaled down intercity services it still needs to move international packages between gateways and pickup and delivery points. "DHL has indicated that it wants ABX Air to continue operating most of our Boeing 767 aircraft currently flying under the DHL contract, at least through June 2009," Hete said in a statement.
DHL had said it hoped to reach an agreement with UPS by the end of this year. A UPS spokesman said the negotiations are still going on, however. "We never set a deadline for an agreement - they did," said spokesman Norman Black. "We remain in negotiations and we remain hopeful of reaching an agreement."
Traffic World OnLine - Air & Parcel