Vegas and St Louis building centres to lure Asian cargo
Cargonews Asia
November 30, 2009
by Martin Rushmere
Despite gloomy assessment of prospects for air freight, two US cargo centres are preparing for an expected increase in Asian traffic.
St Louis is getting a huge amount of attention for its Big Idea, following two visits by Zhou Wenzhong, China's am-bassador to the US as well as Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and former Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.
Wang said: "It is time we move our attention to St Louis and use the base to open up the Midwest." Big Idea officials have spoken to China Eastern, Air China, Cathay Pacific and Hainan Airlines.
The Midwest city has spent US$6 million in federal economic stimulus money to rebuild its taxiways and the state is putting in $10 million to help pay for the cargo centre, along with $1 million for marketing.
The city wants to regain the glory days when it was the main hub for TWA, which later went bankrupt and was bought by American Airlines. American promised to use St Louis as a third hub, behind Chicago and Dallas, but the 9/11 attacks and economic stagnation put paid to that. Today, the airport is only at 60 percent capacity, and the $1 billion spent on a new runway has been of little benefit.
Aircargo between China and the Great Lakes, mostly one-way traffic, has mushroomed from $1 billion in 1989 to over $25 billion in 2008.
The city still has to compete with Chicago and Atlanta, which is seen as being a difficult challenge to overcome. An indication of the challenge is Singapore Airlines Cargo's recent introduction of a weekly Boeing 747-400F service from Hong Kong to Atlanta via Anchorage and Los Angeles, with the return flight via Brussels and Sharjah.
Gambling Mecca Las Vegas has begun work on a $30 million cargo centre that will take up 200,000 sq ft on a 19 acre site. Marnell Air Cargo Centre is designed to host freight and mail-sorting operations for FedEx, Southwest Airlines, Worldwide Flight Services, Allegiant Air, UPS and Omni Air International. An 80,000 sq ft building will house FedEx.
Cargo levels are rising, according to the International Air Transport Association. IATA says that load factors are going back to pre-recession levels, although US traffic is still falling year-on-year.
A sign that the US slump is ending comes from air cargo operator Atlas Air, which saw third-quarter profit grow 180 percent compared to the same period last year. Atlas also owns Polar Air Cargo and has disposed of 14 less efficient 747-200 freighters and turned Polar Air Cargo into a DHL Express.
