Airborne Airpark

Wilmington Air Park

USGS aerial image as of 22 March 1994 (only one runway at the time)
IATA: ILN – ICAO: KILN – FAA LID: ILN
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Clinton County Port Authority
Location Wilmington, Ohio
Elevation AMSL 1,077 ft / 328 m
Coordinates 39°25′41″N 083°47′32″W / 39.42806°N 83.79222°W / 39.42806; -83.79222
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
4L/22R 10,701 3,262 Concrete
4R/22L 9,000 2,743 Concrete
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations 71,000

Wilmington Air Park[1] (IATA: ILN, ICAO: KILN, FAA LID: ILN) is a public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) southeast of the central business district of Wilmington, a city in Clinton County, Ohio, United States. While DHL had privately owned the property while operating from the facility, the company agreed to donate the property to the Clinton County Port Authority.[1]

The airport was formerly known as Clinton County Air Force Base.

History

The airport opened in 1929 and a small hangar was built in 1930. The landing strip was approved by the Civil Works Administration in 1933. In 1940, the Civil Aeronautics Authority took control of Wilmington Airport for use as an emergency landing field. In 1942, the United States Army Air Forces took over the airport, renaming it Clinton County Army Air Field. With the establishment of an independent U.S. Air Force in 1947, the installation was renamed Clinton County Air Force Base and primarily supported Air Force Reserve flight operations and training.

The base was decommissioned as an Air Force installation in 1972 and the Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) began developing the area as the Wilmington Industrial Air Park (WIAP). It also became home to the Great Oaks Joint Vocation School. In 1977, the Southern State Community College opened, using old barracks buildings as classrooms. In 1980, Midwest Air Charter was acquired by Airborne Freight Corporation, resulting in Airborne Express, which became the largest tenant at WIAP.[2]

In 2003, as part of the merger of DHL and Airborne, DHL kept Airborne's ground operations and spun off its air operations as ABX Air. The facility was a major sorting center for package delivery service DHL Express between 2005 and the sorting center's closing in July 2009, following then Deutsche Post-owned DHL's cessation of US domestic delivery services.

Facilities and aircraft

The Wilmington Air Park covers an area of 2,000 acres (810 ha) at an elevation of 1,077 feet (328 m) above mean sea level. It has two concrete surfaced runways: 4L/22R is 10,701 by 150 feet (3,262 x 46 m) and 4R/22L is 9,000 by 150 feet (2,743 x 46 m).[1]

For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2006, the airport had 71,000 aircraft operations, an average of 194 per day: 96% scheduled commercial and 4% general aviation.[1]

Future of the Property

Aerial view of Airborne Airpark in 2012

On January 19, 2010, DHL agreed to turn over the airport, including its two runways, control tower, buildings and cargo storage facilities to the Clinton County Port Authority. On Jun 2, 2010, that donation became effective. While no concrete plans have been set, the port authority plans to work with local and state officials on redeveloping the property.[3]

A comprehensive Redevelopment Study for the Wilmington Air Park was completed in December 2011. An Executive Summary of those findings and recommendations can be found at www.wilmingtonairpark.com.

In January 2012, the Clinton County Port Authority was in conversations with the Ohio Air National Guard for the possible return of a U.S. Air Force presence at the airport, with possible use as a joint civil-military airfield by the Air National Guard to operate model specific Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)[4]

Seattle Times: Originally published December 17, 2015 at 3:13 pm Updated December 28, 2015 at 12:58 pm

“Amazon is pretty fed up with the third-party carriers being a bottleneck to their growth,” Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Colin Sebastian said.

That has led Amazon to consider handling more of its own delivery. A senior aircraft-leasing company executive familiar with Amazon’s plans said the company has approached several cargo-aircraft lessors to line up the planes. The company has had talks with Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), Atlas Air and Kalitta Air, according to sources, though Kalitta Chief Executive Connie Kalitta denied he has talked with Amazon.

Leasing 20 jets would be a significant expansion of an Amazon trial operation out of Wilmington, Ohio, operated by ATSG on Amazon’s behalf, sources said. A cargo-industry source said Amazon expects to make a decision to go beyond the trial run and pull the trigger on a larger air-cargo operation by the end of January.

“I believe they are serious about looking at this,” said the leasing executive, who asked not to be named because he may later do business with Amazon. “They are not going to hang about.”

One analyst even speculates Amazon could deliver for other companies, putting it in direct competition with UPS and FedEx, a move that would dramatically shake up the express package business.

Amazon declined to comment on the development of an air-cargo operation.

The online news site Motherboard reported last month on the Wilmington trial.

Right now, that trial at Wilmington is limited. CEO Joe Hete said in a November conference call that ATSG is using five 767s flown by the company’s subsidiaries Air Transport International and ABX Air for a customer he declined to name.

Airplane-tracker FlightAware.com shows the two carriersare flying about five times a day from Wilmington to Dallas; Tampa, Fla., Ontario, Calif.; and Allentown, Pa. Amazon has warehouses near each of those airports.

From Nov. 1 through Dec. 17, the two ATSG carriers flew a total 219 flights with 767s from Wilmington. In the same period in 2014, the carriers flew just seven 767 flights from Wilmington.

The additional jets Amazon is negotiating to lease would likely operate out of Wilmington Air Park, a former cargo hub that had fallen into disuse.

Airborne Express, the former Seattle-based cargo company, once operated from Wilmington. German carrier DHL later acquired the sales and ground network of Airborne.

DHL used the airport, which has two runways, as hub for its U.S. operations. That business sputtered, and DHL closed its Wilmington business in 2008, laying off 7,000 workers.

Cargo airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
DHL Aviation
operated by ABX Air 		Seasonal: Cincinnati Ontario, Lehigh Valley, Dallas-FortWorth, Tampa

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 FAA Airport Master Record for ILN (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2009-08-27.
  2. ↑ ABX Air: Air Park History
  3. ↑ "DHL agrees to donate airport to group for redevelopment". Dayton Daily News. 2010-01-18. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
  4. ↑ "Air Guard wants to fly UAV here". Wilmington News Journal. 2012-01-14. Retrieved 2012-01-14.

External links

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