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WILMINGTON — ABX Air Inc., which operates the Wilmington freight hub that owner DHL expects to no longer need in 2009, said it has begun a new round of layoffs that will permanently abolish 158 jobs between now and Jan. 14.

The layoff will cost the jobs of 113 hourly employees including drivers, sorters and ramp loaders; 12 salaried workers, and 33 pilots, ABX Air said in a filing last week with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The company said it filed the letter to comply with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires 60-day advance notice of mass layoffs. ABX Air defined the layoff period as beginning last Friday, Nov. 14, and ending Jan. 14.

DHL Solutions, a DHL-owned operation at the Wilmington hub, informed the state last week that it will wipe out 229 jobs between January and July 2009.

DHL Express, the U.S. delivery company owned by Germany-based Deutsche Post World Net, has said it will drastically reduce its money-losing U.S. operations after Jan. 30 to concentrate on its more lucrative international express deliveries. DHL also has said it intends to hire United Parcel Service at Louisville, Ky., by year's end to take over sorting and flying of DHL's U.S. packages. That will cost about 7,000 remaining jobs at the Wilmington hub which DHL will no longer need, Ohio officials have said.

ABX Air, which operates the hub under contract to DHL, said it already has lost more than 1,300 jobs since May when DHL first announced its restructuring plan and intent to hire UPS.