Nippon Cargo Airlines Tests Airport's Capabilities

ROCKFORD -- The busiest month ever for international cargo at Chicago Rockford International Airport will end today when Nippon Cargo Airlines makes its 13th and final test flight here.

While the 2.9 million pounds of freight delivered by the Japanese airline to the airport is significant, the attention the flights garnered internationally may be even more important.

NCA executives visited the Rockford facility this month to observe how freight they fly moves through the airport. The entourage included three board members of the Tokyo-based airline. They watched as imported cargo from an NCA Boeing 747 was unloaded, then loaded with export cargo Dec. 4.

Their visit coincided with a story in Cargonews Asia proclaiming that "Nippon Cargo Airlines brought a new airport into the fold of U.S. gateways for Asian cargo."

The story featured the airline and its series of test flights to Rockford. NCA originally planned 15 flights, but two went to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport instead.

After observing the nighttime flight, the NCA executives toured the airport the following day, visited aerospace company Woodward and had lunch with airport officials, who want the airline to make Rockford a base for some cargo flights.

"I think they were impressed," airport board Chairman Bharat Puri said.

They were the second group of cargo airline executives to visit the airport this fall. Executives from Atlas Air of Purchase, N.Y., were on the cargo ramp Nov. 10 to observe the unloading and loading of a pair of Atlas Boeing 747s that landed here.

While global international cargo shipments have fallen from 2010, Rockford's four-year campaign to attract cargo operations appears to have some traction.

The airport wants the jobs, landing fees, fuel sales and other revenue for private airport businesses that come with cargo flights.

NCA is the latest cargo carrier to test airport claims over the past 18 months that airlines can save money landing in Rockford and trucking freight to and from companies in the cargo logistics network around O'Hare. NCA's flights are the most extensive test to date, said Ken Ryan, director of cargo development at Rockford's airport.

About half of the flights emptied their payload in Rockford and were reloaded with cargo to be exported by NCA, he said. The others left empty.

"It's very significant because you're testing the whole process, imports and exports," Ryan said.

In addition to testing cargo logistics, services provided by airport vendors, such as refueling and aircraft cleaning, are being evaluated, he said.

While Rockford's proximity to O'Hare is well-known among cargo companies, Cargonews Asia says NCA's interest in Rockford has to do with the new Boeing 747-8s that the airline has ordered. Rockford was among the first airports certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to land Boeing's newest, largest air freighter.

Shawn McWhorter, NCA's president for the Americas, told Cargonews Asia that NCA has operational issues at O'Hare with the 747-8.

"You can fly in and use the taxiways, but you have to use remote parking positions. Those at the cargo terminal are not big enough for the 747-8," McWhorter told the news outlet.

Rockford's International Cargo Building, opened in 2008, was designed to handle the larger plane.

O'Hare is NCA's Midwest gateway, and automobile parts have recently been major exports from the U.S. and Canada to NCA's home market.

Reach staff writer Brian Leaf at [email protected] or 815-987-1343.

Chasing air cargo goals

Commissioners at Chicago Rockford International want to become a top-20 cargo airport, and they’re pursuing international cargo operations as a way to complement UPS’s domestic-package sorting hub.

TOP 25 U.S. CARGO AIRPORTS

AIRPORT NAME CARGO VOLUME 1 Memphis (Tenn.) International 19,544,635,833 2 Ted Stevens Anchorage (Alaska) 19,463,543,790 3 Louisville (Ky.) International 10,637,700,120 4 Miami International 6,905,291,871 5 Chicago O’Hare International 4,895,940,100 6 Indianapolis International 4,717,295,655 7 Los Angeles International 3,954,810,091 8 John F. Kennedy Intl (New York) 3,923,400,051 9 Dallas/Fort Worth International 3,031,597,346 10 Newark Liberty International 2,978,995,667 11 Metropolitan Oakland (Calif.) Intl 2,648,094,390 12 Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta 2,628,040,410 13 Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky 2,431,870,514 14 LA/Ontario (Calif.) International 2,241,182,912 15 Honolulu International 2,123,084,700 16 Philadelphia International 1,987,519,867 17 George Bush (Houston) 1,526,026,442 18 Seattle-Tacoma International 1,394,058,765 19 San Francisco International 1,304,432,000 20 Denver International 1,237,718,352 21 Phoenix Sky Harbor International 1,213,458,732 22 Portland (Ore.) International 1,062,285,290 23 Minneapolis-St. Paul 1,024,128,613 24 Chicago Rockford International 917,260,300 25 Boeing Field/King County (Seattle) 906,716,494 Source: Federal Aviation Administration