It’s a tenant with ties to Amazon.com Inc.
“We have another tenant,” said Daniel Evers, executive director for the Clinton County Port Authority, which owns the air park. “We have another air cargo operator at the air park, one that is significant in the air freight industry.”
“It’s also market validation for what we’ve been doing here,” he added.
Atlas Air Worldwide landed its first air cargo flight in Wilmington Wednesday.
Evers said he has not asked Atlas what the company is flying to and through Wilmington, and he referred questions about that to Atlas.
But last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon.com Inc. showed the first in a planned fleet of new cargo jets for its air cargo network, a Boeing 767-300, with “Prime Air” painted on its fuselage.
The plane is to be operated by Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc., the Journal reported.
The local air park is also home to Air Transport Services Group, its biggest tenant, who is flying an air cargo network on behalf of Amazon.
Evers said air park’s board of trustees will vote Thursday morning on a proposed operating agreement between the park and Atlas Air Worldwide, a Purchase, N.Y.-based company.
The agreement stipulates no precise employment at the Clinton County air park. But Evers said: “At the present time, they are going to fly one flight seven days a week (at the Wilmington park). We anticipate that will generate some employment.”
The air park issued no official announcement on the tenant, but its Twitter account (@WilmingtonAirPk) welcomed the company.
"We're pleased to welcome @AtlasAirWW as our newest scheduled #aircargo carrier, and newest tenant! #FirstLanding," a tweet on Wednesday said.
Congratulatory tweets followed from others, including Jeff Hoagland, the president and chief executive of the Dayton Development Coalition.
On a typical day, some 1,400 people working for at least 10 companies go to work at the air park. The busiest tenant there is Air Transport Services Group.
In March, ATSG confirmed that it had struck a formal agreement with Amazon to operate an air transport network for the online giant.
Atlas Air Worldwide is the parent company of Atlas Air, Inc., Southern Air Holdings, Inc. and Titan Aviation Holdings, Inc., and is the majority shareholder of Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, Inc., companies which operate what the parent company calls “the world’s largest fleet of 747 freighter aircraft and … the broadest array of Boeing 747, 777, 767, 757 and 737 aircraft for domestic, regional and international applications.”
Messages seeking comment were left with Atlas and Amazon.
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