No room in TOL for DHL, its smaller then CVG. On the other hand there would be room for DHL AND BAX in ILN....
I haven't counted tails, but the ramp at CVG does not appear to have any extra space. A quick look at a parking diagram shows space for 34 - 36 large aircraft. That would seem to preclude a move to TOL. There would be enough space at ILN for both DHL and BAX right now.
If in fact the CVG sort is to small a move back to ILN would, on the face of it, seem logical. I note that despite all the words exchanged on the subject DHL has never committed to actually giving the airport to the city, county, state, or whomever. They merely said they would consider it. They might do it, move back, and remain a tenant if a way could be found to:
1) forgive the bonds used to build the $350 million F sort;
2) provide tax abatements;
3) provide funding to DHL for "training" the "new" employees.
Or not, they might do it anyway if they felt they needed to. If DHL were to return to ILN they could cut some costs by operating the way ABX did for years. No tower, one runway for IMC ops, cancel with DAY approach when the runway was in sight or after landing. I think this would allow at least CAT II ops and reduce the cost of operating two all weather CAT III runways.
I rather suspect there isn't enough freight to justify using more than the new F sort, so they wouldn't have to staff the other labor intensive sorts. They could hire from the local work force at new hire pay rates (say 1/2 what they were paying prior to the shutdown) and little or no health care or other benefits at company expense. These things might not be big ticket items in terms of the cost of the overall operation, but if CVG is already to small and ILN could be operated at or near the cost of CVG and the return and startup costs offset...
The local community might not welcome them back with open arms, but the unemployment rate is in or near double digits in Clinton county so I don't think they would be turned away.
All of this depends on how big a player DHL wants or plans to be in the US and whether or not they have learned anything at all from their mistakes of the last 5-6 years.
