How to Build Cargo Capacity at an Airport: Attract Industries to Nearby Locations

Jim Burress writes about the difficult, but lucrative, prospect of generating more cargo traffic at airports—a current goal of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Although Atlanta's airport is the world busiest for passenger traffic, it doesn't crack the top 30 in cargo, a list populated by Louisville, Anchorage, and Indianapolis.

While traditional cargo markets are stagnant, the airport is looking to create facilities that cater to a unique sector of cargo: perishable goods, like pharmaceuticals and fresh flowers.

Burress also speaks with Enno Osinga who runs cargo operations at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and serves as Vice Chair of Vice-Chair of The International Air Cargo Association. Here are Osinga's telling words about airports and their relationship to the surrounding city: "An airport, if you look at it unkindly, is a bit of concrete. It’s got runways. It’s got aprons…They’re all the same."

Adds Burress: "The key to bolstering cargo operations, Osinga says, is to convince industry to build nearby."