Apr. 29—Amazon Air Regional Air Hub has started operations at San Bernardino International Airport, Amazon officials announced Wednesday, April 28.
The nearly 660,000-square-foot sorting facility west of Victoria Avenue and south of Third Street in eastern San Bernardino will serve as the Southern California headquarters for the e-commerce giant's expansive air freight network.
And yet, its December 2019 approval presently is being challenged in court.
In lawsuits filed last year, former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra and local environmental groups contend the Federal Aviation Administration, San Bernardino International Airport and master developer Hillwood Enterprises ignored significant health risks the project posed to the surrounding community ahead of their approval of the logistics center.
Attorneys representing the state and local environmental groups argued their case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February.
A ruling has yet to be made, Adrian Martinez, an attorney with Earthjustice, the San Francisco-based law firm representing environmentalists in one lawsuit, said Wednesday.
"It's really frustrating that the operations are starting (at the air hub)," he said, "especially given the significant harms from an air quality, climate and other impact perspective, and even in light of this important case that's ongoing."
Michael Burrows, the airport's executive director, declined to comment Wednesday on active litigation.
Formerly known as the Eastgate Air Cargo Logistics Center, the $200 million project is Amazon's seventh air site in the state.
There currently is one daily flight facilitating shipment of customer packages throughout the region and country, Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hards said Wednesday. However, the site has the capacity to support up to 14 flights, flying to a range of the more than 35 sites across Amazon Air's domestic network.
Activity will ramp up slowly, Hards added, with six daily flights by July and nine daily flights by the end of the year.
Hundreds of employees are working at the facility, Hards said. By 2022, the company expects to employ more than 1,000 at the site, she said.
With Amazon now up and running, the three largest integrated air cargo carriers in the world operate out of SBIA, at the former Norton Air Force Base.
"The Amazon Air Regional Air Hub is a long-awaited project that we are very proud ... to see come to fruition," Burrows said in an email Wednesday. "One of the primary goals of the Inland Valley Development Agency and SBD International Airport is to restore jobs and economic growth to the Inland Empire as a result of the Norton Air Force Base closure.
"We have worked tirelessly over the last 20-plus years, with our partner, Hillwood, to restore those jobs and deliver even more, especially now, with the opening of the Amazon Air Regional Air Hub," Burrows said.
In line with Amazon's goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, its San Bernardino air hub includes the company's first ground-power units run on electricity. The units supply aircraft with power while being serviced on the ground, according to a news release.
The facility also will operate the company's first electric wide-body pushback tractors in North America.
Such ground support equipment will help reduce carbon emissions and cut down on noise on the site, the news release said.
------
___
(c)2021 the San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, Calif.)
Visit the San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, Calif.) at www.sbsun.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
