Amazon to spend US$1.49b on air cargo hub; analysts talk of bigger ambitions

San Francisco

AMAZON.com Inc plans to invest US$1.49 billion to build a large air cargo hub in northern Kentucky, state officials said on Tuesday, stoking expectations that it may one day opt to compete directly with FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc.

The world's biggest online retailer has agreed to a 50-year lease for about 364 hectares of property from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport - close in size to the global hubs of top cargo airlines.