december2021january2022 - 30

CARGO MATTERS
Make Air Cargo a Priority
for Smaller Regional Airports
By Mike Dunn
B
etween an e-commerce boom, supply chain
shortages and intense consumer demand,
there's little doubt: It's a new era for the cargo
freight industry.
During 2020, consumers became accustomed to -
even thrived on - online shopping. Retailers big and
small responded by pivoting their attention toward
e-commerce. And with little evidence that those
trends will ever shift back to the way they were before,
the freight marketplace is ripe with opportunity.
Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) is
an ideal location for packages to arrive in the Midwest
before being dispersed throughout North America.
To that end, RFD handles up to 40 UPS flights
daily on average and is one of Amazon's five busiest
air hubs. It didn't come to fruition by happenstance,
but through careful vision-casting and infrastructure
investment.
Seizing the Day as a Small Airport
RFD is far from a newcomer in the cargo market. Air
freight has been a core component of the airport's
strategic growth plan for decades, as it maximized its
opportunities as a regional airport on the outskirts of
a major metropolitan area.
RFD's cargo footprint began even before e-commerce
did. Its first major deal happened in the early 1990s,
when UPS struck a deal with Wisconsin-based Lands'
End. UPS saw the marriage of many factors here: easy
interstate access, a central location, inexpensive land for
development, and the ability to get wheels up quickly
at all times of the day or night.
The shipping carrier found that moving freight in
and out of RFD was hassle-free and fast. So, RFD's
relationship with UPS grew over the years, with the
airport eventually becoming the second-largest UPS
hub in all of North America.
With e-commerce growing over the past decade,
leaders at RFD knew the time was right for strategic
investment in the cargo side of their business. The
RFD team approved a $17 million ramp expansion,
an Amazon facility expansion and a new $50 million
International Cargo Facility.
The airport as among the first in the country to
establish itself as an Amazon Air gateway, when Amazon
first launched its own cargo freight flights in 2016.
This investment, along with investments made for UPS
as well as international cargo flights, contributed to Chicago
Rockford International Airport being named by
Airports Council International as the fastest-growing
cargo airport in the world among those handling at least
250,000 metric tons of freight each year.
Business continued to grow by the time the calendar
RFD's wait time is lower for both airplanes and trucks, keeping
cargo moving into the hands of businesses and consumers far
more quickly.
30 GROUND SUPPORT WORLDWIDE DECEMBER 2021/JANUARY 2022
changed to 2020.
RFD executives were pushing hard for new
opportunities, particularly in the international
market and in just the first quarter of 2020, RFD
Chicago Rockford International Airport
december2021january2022

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