DHL’s plan to end shipping inside the United States early next year will spell thousands of job cuts for employees in the southwest Ohio town of Wilmington, but it’s the company’s pending deal with UPS that likely will mean lights out for the operation.

ABX Air Inc., which provides air cargo transport services for DHL and operates DHL’s privately owned Wilmington Air Park, told investors of parent company Air Transport Services Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ATSG) late Monday that the company expects a “substantial majority” of workers dedicated to DHL’s domestic shipping network will be cut after January.

Air Transport in the same release said it will delay reporting its third-quarter financial results in light of the Monday morning announcement from DHL parent Deutsche Post World Net. The company said it will exit the U.S. domestic market beginning Jan. 30 to offer international services only. That will mean the closure of the company’s U.S. ground hubs, a reduction in its service stations to 103 from 412 and the elimination of 9,500 jobs, in addition to 5,400 job cuts already this year.

ABX said it expects operations in Wilmington to continue in a “more limited capacity” through at least the middle of 2009.

DHL’s ultimate exit from Wilmington, company spokesman Jonathan Baker said, will come when the company finalizes a deal announced in May to shift its air cargo operations to UPS’ (NYSE: UPS) hub in Louisville, Ky. As a result of DHL’s decision to close its point-to-point service in the U.S., the controversial deal with UPS will involve a reduced shipping volume, but negotiations continue and could wrap by the end of the year, Baker said.

“The scope of our discussions reflect our change in strategic direction,” he said. “The advantage of an agreement with UPS remains. It’s an agreement based on volume as opposed to fixed costs ... and that is a significant advantage, particularly in a down economy when volumes are declining.”

An agreement with UPS, Baker said, will – as expected – lead to the company ceasing operations in Wilmington after a transition period. A timeline on DHL’s exit wasn’t available as negotiations with UPS are ongoing.

The toll of DHL’s plan is estimated at more than 8,000 jobs, something Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher late Monday called “heartbreaking news” in a statement issued late Monday.

“While our DHL Economic Task Force, organized by Lt. Governor Lee Fisher and Wilmington Mayor David Raizk, had worked for a different outcome, we will now focus on doing everything we can to help the affected workers, their families and their communities,” Strickland said. “Work-force investment boards across the region have come together to offer job placement and retraining resources to those who need it.”

An immediate assist from the Ohio Department of Development is in the form of a business assistance center in the Clinton County city. The Wilmington Business Resource Center is in the Wilmington United Methodist Church on East Main Street, the Development Department said. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, with services from state agencies that include the International Trade Assistance Center, the Manufacturing and Technology Small Business Development Center and the Ohio Procurement Technical Assistance Center.

Services will include one-on-one entrepreneurial assistance, business training events, counseling, loan guidance and information on government regulations and programs.

The Ohio Benefit Bank, part of the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, also will be open at the site on Thursday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m., offering assistance in applying for health-care coverage, home energy assistance, food stamps, child-care subsidies and other public benefits.