Dec. 8—A year after suspending its twice-weekly cargo flights, Qatar Airways once again is touching down at Pittsburgh International Airport.
But unlike its prior deals, which netted the airline at least $1.48 million in subsidies, Qatar won't be getting any money to operate the new weekly flight, said Bob Kerlik, spokesman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which operates Pittsburgh International.
Qatar plans to land the converted Boeing 777-300ER passenger jet at the Findlay airport for the next six months, according to the authority.
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The flight is a collaboration between the authority, freight forwarders Unique Logistics International and Apex Logistics International, and Expo Group in Bangladesh.
Marc Schlossberg, executive vice president of sales, marketing and air freight for Unique Logistics, said he is hoping to upgrade the Qatar flight to twice a week in January. The flight originates in Bangladesh and flies to the Qatari capital of Doha before ending up in Pittsburgh.
The new flight is the latest effort by the airport authority to bolster cargo business at Pittsburgh International, which has seen passenger traffic plummet as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And Mr. Schlossberg said Pittsburgh has some advantages over major markets like New York and Chicago, where congestion often results in delays in unloading cargo.
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Backed by hefty subsidies and great fanfare, Qatar launched its first go around in Pittsburgh in October 2017. The flight represented Pittsburgh's first international freighter route.
However, the first year did not go well, with Qatar failing to come close to producing the 480 tons of cargo needed monthly, on average, for the authority to avoid subsidizing the route.
As a result, it ended up paying the airline $1.48 million in incentives, the maximum amount possible.
Under a restructured deal the next year, Qatar was eligible for a maximum of $780,000, based on the amount of cargo it flew from Pittsburgh but is not expected to get anything close to that, Mr. Kerlik said. The final amount has yet to be calculated.
"The incentive for Year 2 of the original agreement is still being finalized due to the disruption in schedules stemming from the pandemic. However, we expect the amount will be less than a quarter of the first year cost," he said.
That agreement ended in September 2019. In December, Qatar suspended the flight.
Mr. Schlossberg said Unique Logistics and its partners decided to give Pittsburgh another shot because of the efficiencies it provides compared to many of the major airports.
In New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, it can take up to a week to unload cargo, he said. In Pittsburgh, that can be done in hours. In addition, about two-thirds of the U.S. population is within a one-day truck drive of the airport.
"We find that Pittsburgh is centrally located to our clients' distribution centers in Tennessee, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania, and in New York. Given the congestion at international gateways like JFK or Chicago, we feel there are advantages to utilizing a secondary airport like Pittsburgh," he said.
"People are paying for air freight and they want it fast."
Another factor working to Pittsburgh's advantage, he said, is that the authority, local trucking companies and others in the community have been supportive.
"Unlike JFK, Pittsburgh is hungry for the business. They want to make it work," he said.
The biggest problem locally is not the cargo coming in but the cargo going out. There's not nearly enough volume.
"You have to fly both ways. If it's empty one way, it doubles your cost," Mr. Schlossberg said. "That's always been a challenge. The U.S. buys more than it sells. As a result, there are a lot less exports than there are imports."
If Pittsburgh truly wants to be a cargo hub, more local companies need to step up and route their cargo through the airport, not the major gateways, as many do now, he said.
Cargo has been one of the few bright spots for the airport during the pandemic, thanks in part to the surge in e-commerce. While overall volume is down, it is not anywhere near as much as with passenger travel.
Earlier this year, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways provided three months of twice weekly international cargo service to Pittsburgh before it ended on Thanksgiving.
Mr. Schlossberg, who was instrumental in crafting that deal, is trying to arrange another with the airline.
"We're just haggling over price at the moment," he said.
Last year, the airport received an $18.7 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant to help with construction of a 75,000-square-foot cargo building and accompanying parking as part of its expansion plans.
The facility can accommodate bigger airplanes and will provide more parking for companies like FedEx and UPS that require sorting facilities and high volumes of truck access, according to the authority.
Construction has yet to start.
Authority officials also have reached an agreement with Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to collaborate on cargo-related activities.
Mark Belko: [email protected] or 412-263-1262.
First Published December 8, 2020, 5:36am
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