Delta Air Lines extends lease of Cincinnati/Northern kentucky aircraft maintenance hangar

Airlines often lease airport property for the long term for various purposes, including maintenance of aircraft.

Delta Air Lines also leases its aircraft maintenance hangar at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) in Kentucky and has now extended it for another 10 years.

Delta Air Lines will keep its aircraft maintenance hangar at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport for another 10 years after recently extending its lease.

Situated at 3318 Lincoln Road in Hebron, the hangar will remain with the carrier until at least 2036.

According to the Cincinnati Business Courier, the new lease term also allows Delta two, five-year extension options upon the agreement of both the airport and the airline.

Candace McGraw, the outgoing CEO of Cincinnati Airport, calls this a “fabulous deal.”

The hangar provides a livelihood for several employees, and the latest lease extension means that Delta Air Lines will also retain more than 70 jobs at the hangar.

The airline had been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to lease this property, and the new deal has increased that amount substantially.

Delta’s annual lease for the hangar in Cincinnati will increase from $300,000 to $1.2 million, as reported by the Cincinnati Business Courier.

The lease says that the airline will also build a new fire suppression system in the hangar.

Delta has operated this hangar for more than three decades, since 1988. Back then, the airline used Cincinnati as a hub airport. While that’s no longer the case, Delta still has a substantial network out of the city, which warrants an aircraft maintenance hangar.

According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Delta has an extensive network out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

In February, it offers more than 1,150 flights to 20 destinations both in the United States and internationally, amounting to more than 130,000 one-way seats.

Unsurprisingly, its top destination out of Cincinnati is its primary hub at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) with 175 flights this month.

This is followed by 122 flights to New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA), and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) at 106 flights each.

The carrier also operates international flights from Cincinnati to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CGD) and Cancún International Airport (CUN) in Mexico.

Over the last several months, Delta has tweaked its network out of CVG based on passenger demand. For example, it increased its flights between Cincinnati and Paris to daily last summer in response to demand for the Summer Olympics.

In October, it also cut flights between Cincinnati and Denver as part of a larger plan to reduce flights on routes where United, Southwest, and others offer more.

Delta isn’t the only airline to spend big dollars on maintenance facilities in Cincinnati. Recently, DHL also started construction of its proposed maintenance facility to accommodate its growing fleet and presence at the airport.

The facility spans 305,000 sq. ft., and the total cost of the project will be around $292 million. DHL is aiming for more efficient repairs for its planes at the new facility that will translate into more reliable customer deliveries.

The new facility will help generate new job opportunities in the area as it will require an additional workforce of 300 people.

Currently, DHL's CVG hub functions out of 194 acres with 67 aircraft parking gates and 6.4 million sq. ft. of ramp area.

The new facility will also include a 50-acre aircraft parking apron with eight new aircraft gates and three new maintenance gates.

The hangar will be able to accommodate two Boeing 777s or four Boeing 767s.

In November 2024, it was also reported that Cincinnati Airport appointed several construction firms with extensive airport construction experience for a $575 million modernization project. Simple Flying has covered that in the article below.