Welcome back to the AirFreight.com blog as we take our second regular look at some of the most recent important news and articles that relate to the air freight and air cargo industry. In addition to our normal updates these news updates will feature many of the other facts, figures and opinions that help to provide a better overall understanding of the health of the air freight industry today. After each summary you can click on the blue link to learn more, so let's get going.
Tampa International Airport (TPA) celebrates the return of direct transatlantic service as Lufthansa add nonstop flights to Frankfurt. It's encouraging news for the Florida city as the airport looks to return to being a larger international air freight hub in addition to extensive domestic routes. The news marks a return to German service for the first time in over a decade, read more at the Tampa Bay Times.
More news about the proposed transfer of air freight services from New York's JFK to Newburgh which we wrote about earlier here. Proposals are moving forward to transform the airport into a cargo drop hub for trucks allowing transfer onward to JFK or Newark. In news that perhaps suggests the JFK switch is likely it'll be interesting to keep a close eye on this.
Etihad expand their air cargo services further with the addition of a new Boeing 747 freighter to regular service. The air freight division of Etihad is operated by Atlas Air Inc. on behalf of the airline and the new plane takes the air cargo fleet up to ten aircraft in total.
Indianapolis (IND) is already the nations 8th largest cargo facility in no small part due to the Fedex facilities at the airport but the addition of four new daily services from the center of Indiana in February will further expand capacity for air freight. Allegiant Air will begin operations to Las Vegas and three cities in Florida in February, for full details check the story on IndianaBusiness.com
United Kingdom - a really interesting article reports that air freight through London Heathrow (LHR) is up 5.3% so far in 2014 which is above the European average. The report also states that a remarkable 40% of UK imports and exports are moved by air in addition to lots of other facts and figures in this piece from breakingtravelnews.com
Atlanta is to launch an in-depth study of how air cargo services can be improved at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The city announced that they will work with consultants to develop full analysis of the air cargo service market with a focus on emerging international markets in addition to niche markets that the Atlanta metro region should develop more trade with. More analysis over at bizjournals.com
Seattle - Ted Fick the recently appointed CEO of The Port of Seattle has called for rapid expansion at both the port and Sea-Tac Airport to help bring up to 100,000 new jobs to the region. Such growth would secure Seattle as one of the largest air freight hubs in North America and air cargo is a large piece of the equation per this great article from bizjournals.com
That should wrap things up for this week but if there are other stories you'd like to see shared or have comments about then get in touch via the comments section, our Twitter account or Facebook page.