The Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) shared that the FFA-issued the year-ending 2020 cargo numbers and ranked RFD as the 17th largest airport in the nation for landed weight.
“Moving from being the 19th largest US cargo airport to the 17th is a huge move for RFD. The continued growth of cargo activity at RFD is something which the entire region and State of Illinois should be extremely proud,” said Mike Dunn, executive director, RFD.
According to the FAA’s Air Carrier Activity Information System (ACAIS) report, RFD landed more than 2.7 billion pounds of landed freight in 2020 compared to 2.3 billion pounds in 2019. This is more than a 15 percent year-over-year increase. The amount of cargo traveling through RFD exceeds that of much larger airports including Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, Houston, and Portland, among others.
The leading driver of the cargo growth was e-commerce purchases that helped to increase the number of cargo flights and form new international cargo operations.
RFD is home to both the second largest UPS hub in North America and Amazon Air. The airport also serves other leaders in the air cargo industry, including ABX Air, ATI, Senator International, DB Schenker, National Airlines, and Atlas Air. With the airport’s recent cargo expansions, Rockford is quickly becoming a Midwest hub for e-commerce and international freight.
Among the many projects the airport and its partners have announced and/or achieved in just the past few months include the construction of the new $50 million International Cargo Center, the AAR/United Airlines partnership and the $17 million UPS ramp expansion.
RFD is a major economic engine for the Rock River Valley, and northern Illinois, creating skilled jobs in aviation, transportation, logistics and construction. Over the past year, RFD and its partners have created over 1,000 new jobs bringing the total jobs on the airport campus to over 8,000.
Passenger Service Continues to Grow
After a year that saw reduced flights due to COVID-19 restrictions, RFD is seeing passenger travel increase again. Currently, RFD passenger enplanements are closing in on pre-COVID numbers, June 2021 was down just 17 percent over 2019. Nationally, passenger airline industry as a whole is still down while RFD continues to close the gap.
