BAX Global may be gone from Toledo Express Airport, but some of the freight it formerly handled there isn't.

A Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority committee Friday approved a three-year, month-to-month lease with DHL Express (USA) Inc. for about half of the Air Cargo Building on the airfield's north side. The facility will be used to move transfer freight, with nine weekly flights expected to stop at Toledo Express and DHL-affiliated trucks routed to Toledo, Detroit, and Grand Rapids, Mich.

The operation will employ about 25 people in a mix of full-time and part-time positions at its start on Monday, Airport Manager Steve Arnold told the port authority's airport committee. Integrated Airline Services, a DHL contractor, will run the facility.

Port President Paul Toth said DHL had, since spring, flown Michigan freight in and out of Toledo by booking space on BAX Global flights. When BAX Global announced it was shutting down its Toledo cargo hub on Sept. 1, DHL considered returning the traffic to Detroit Metropolitan-Wayne County Airport, but has been persuaded to stay in Toledo, he said.

"It's good to get some good news out there," Jerry Chabler, the airport committee's chairman, said after hearing Mr. Toth's report.

The port authority's full board of directors is scheduled to vote Thursday on the DHL lease, but Mr. Toth said the company could establish its local operation before then based on a schedule of airport lease rates and landing fees already approved by the board.

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