ABX Air announced that DHL, its principal customer, will discontinue a substantial portion of its U.S.-based domestic express package operations effective January 4, 2009, which will lead to the loss of some 1,900 ABX jobs.
The company said that DHL intends to close its sorting operations at its U.S. regional hubs, and all domestic daytime package sorting operations except a Sunday day sort operation on that date.
DHL is still in negotiations with UPS on a proposed deal where UPS would only ship DHL’s international shipments from their US landing points to their ultimate US destinations.
The closure of these operations will result in the reduction of approximately 1,900 ABX Air positions, the company said, including about 1,000 positions in Wilmington, Ohio. The reductions will affect every department of the company. Notifications to affected employees will begin next week.
DHL also notified ABX Air that it will no longer require the use of ABX Air’s DC-9 aircraft after January.
In November, Deutsche Post World Net, parent company of DHL Express, announced that it would discontinue its US-only air and ground services, resulting in the loss of 9,500 jobs.
