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Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport and the air freight community surrounding the gateway are working hard to maintain its cargo-friendly image. Investment continues at the airport, while efforts are being made to maximise the opportunities available to the region's huge number of exporters.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport is "still trending upward in its cargo numbers", explains the gateway's aviation development manager, Warren Jones.
Atlanta grew its freight volumes last year by significantly more than the market average according to Airports Council International, he observed, and is doing well again once more in 2011.
Cargo throughput was boosted by the move to a daily B747-400 freighter frequency by Asiana Airlines in September, up from the four times a week frequency to the Georgia gateway that the carrier launched last year. Cargolux of Luxembourg upped its visits to a five time a week B747-400 freighter frequency earlier this year, while China Cargo Airlines is also to add cargo services through Hartsfield-Jackson.
In addition, Jones is very confident of signing an entirely new cargo carrier to the client list in the very near future. "We are now just dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s," he observed.
These additional operating frequencies, and any entirely new cargo carrying customers, are serving many industries but - for Asiana in particular - the automobile industry in the region around Atlanta is particularly important. Jones pointed out that Hartsfield-Jackson serves the Kia car plant in West Point, Georgia; the VW plant at Chattanooga, Tennessee; Mercedes in Alabama; Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama; and BMW in South Carolina.
Not only are car parts being flown in, cars are also flying out from Atlanta, for example for crash testing.
Jones cautioned that there is increasing competition from other US gateways. They are increasingly realising that air cargo is a regional economic driver, he said. However, Jones is also determined to see Hartsfield-Jackson retain its place at the top table of US cargo gateways.
Already boasting a large community of local freight forwarders, an excellent highway system around the airport, some of the lowest landing fees in the US and excellent positioning at the heart of a burgeoning regional economy, further development is still planned.
In this regard, he pointed to a cargo master plan, to which the finishing touches are currently being made. Jones will be presenting the strategy to the airport's senior management in the next few weeks; it incorporates facility development recommendations that cover the next five, ten and 15 years.
"We want to be ready for new cargo carriers coming in," he said. One focus for development has been readying the gateway for handling the B747-8 freighter. "We're very excited about the opportunity to further grow our air freight capability," Jones declared.
He is quick to point out that he does not want to attract to the airport's runways so much additional freight space that there is in fact overcapacity - this, he observed, only leads to declines in yields and the possible loss of valuable airline customers.
But, of course, Jones wants to maintain the reputation of being a "cargo-friendly airport", one at which it is easy for airlines to do business and not be suffocated by red tape.
All this and more can be illustrated at next year's TIACA (The International Air Cargo Association) Air Cargo Forum to be held in Atlanta. A little less than 12 months away now, preparations for the event are "really coming along now", he said.
"We are really excited about the opportunity to host this prestigious event," Jones concluded.
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