Local air-cargo company Kitty Hawk is continuing the expansion of its new ground-cargo unit with the announcement of a second hub, this one at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, where the company is based.
Kitty Hawk offers air-cargo service from its Fort Wayne, Ind., hub to 28 destinations, including D/FW.
On Oct. 31, the company began offering a similar ground-delivery service to those same destinations from Fort Wayne. On Nov. 28, the company added seven more cities to its ground-delivery network that were not served by its planes.
Beginning Jan. 2, at least eight to 10 Kitty Hawk trucks a day will go in and out of the warehouse that the company's planes use at D/FW, said Bob Zoller, Kitty Hawk's president and chief executive.
Trucks from both coasts will take deliveries to D/FW, where shipments will be redistributed.
"Effectively what it is, is a meeting point for all those cities, just like Fort Wayne will be," Zoller said. Kitty Hawk employs 300 people at its D/FW hub and doesn't expect to have to add employees for the expanded service.
The company aims to beef up its ground network to 46 cities by the first quarter of 2006. Across the country, more cargo shipments are going by truck instead of by air because it's cheaper and more efficient, industry experts have said.
Zoller said his company has also seen that trend.
"I think there's a good portion of the air freight market that, because of the high fuel prices, has certainly shifted to less-expensive modes of transportation," he said. "For some of the air freight we were carrying two years ago, the shipper can't afford to use our air-freight service."
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