Air Transport Services Group, Inc. (Wilmington, Ohio) announced its airline subsidiary, ABX Air (Wilmington, Ohio), has received termination notices from DHL affecting four DHL-owned Boeing 767-200 freighter aircraft that ABX Air leases and operates within the U.S. under terms of the Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (CMI) agreement between the companies. DHL sought bids to operate the aircraft from other vendors earlier this year.

The notices are effective in late December 2014 for two aircraft, and in January 2015 for the two remaining aircraft. This reduction in CMI operations for DHL will likely reduce ATSG’s earnings from continuing operations by less than one cent per share in 2015. Excluding those four aircraft, ATSG currently operates 21 freighter aircraft over scheduled routes for DHL, including 17 Boeing 767s and four Boeing 757s.

Related to this announcement, Atlas Air announced it will expand its service for DHL Express’ North American route network using four additional Boeing 767-200 freighter aircraft owned by DHL. Atlas Air expects to start flying the first incremental aircraft in December 2014, and to operate all four by the end of January 2015.

Copyright Photo: Jay Selman/AirlinersGallery.com. ABX Air’s Boeing 767-281 (F) N798AX (msn 23431) arrives in Miami in DHL colors.

ABX Air: 

DHL: