Cargo Sees a Big Boost at the Airport, and It's Not Just Because More People are Shopping Online

Jan. 10—After being overlooked for decades, cargo finally is picking up a tail wind at Pittsburgh International Airport — in the middle of a pandemic no less.

Through November, carriers had hauled 223.8 million pounds of cargo to and from the airport, setting up Pittsburgh International for its busiest year since at least 1990.

The rise of cargo is in part due to the explosion of e-commerce during the pandemic. But that's not exclusively the reason.

It's also the result of an aggressive campaign by the airport to boost cargo traffic, sometimes with cash incentives, and efforts by haulers to find alternative places to land cargo to avoid logjams at major hubs in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles.

"Clearly, Pittsburgh has been one of the shining stars, if you will, in the movement to alternative gateways. And for good reason. They've put a lot of effort and work into it," said Doug Bañez, managing director of Hubpoint Strategic Advisors, an aviation industry consultant.

Cargo at Pittsburgh International has been on the upswing for the last seven years, but it really has, um, taken off more recently with the arrival of international carriers like Qatar and Cathay Pacific and e-commerce behemoth, Amazon Air.

The 223.8 million pounds of cargo that carriers hauled through last November is 52.3 million pounds more than they did in 2015 when neither Amazon nor any of the international carriers were even a blip on the radar.

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Business has been so good that the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which runs Pittsburgh International, is investing in a new state-of-the-art cargo building totaling nearly 80,000 square feet.

It will include warehouse and office space as well as 17 loading docks capable of handling any airplane flying today. The facility will be able to segregate cargo and accommodate goods that are temperature controlled or sensitive.

The facility, to open in 2024, is being built at a time when the airport's other five cargo buildings, ranging in size from 44,000 to 58,488 square feet, are filling to the brim because of increased activity.

"We're running out of space in warehousing," said Christina Cassotis, the authority's CEO. "This is important to us to create additional facility space."

The roots of the cargo boom, ironically enough, date back to one of the airport's darkest hours — the collapse of the US Airways hub in 2004.

One of the fallouts of that decision, besides the loss of thousands of jobs and hundreds of flights, is that it left the airport with an elaborate runway system that was hardly used.

Even with the surge in flights since Ms. Cassotis took over in 2015, Pittsburgh still has plenty of runway capacity.

And that is proving attractive to cargo carriers as they look to bypass congested ports in major cities, said experts like Mr. Bañez and Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Association.

Pittsburgh offers the ability to get cargo off and on planes in a much shorter time frame than in major gateways where it can drag on for hours or even days, they said. Those big ports are often hampered by aging infrastructure, labor issues, and congestion.

"Time is money," Mr. Fried said. "You've got to keep that airplane flying. They make no money when that airplane is sitting on the ground. The quicker they can get the airplane back in the air, the more money they can make."

The Findlay airport, he pointed out, also has the advantage of being within 500 miles of 80% of the U.S. population — meaning that shipments delivered here can get there either overnight or within a day.

Pittsburgh isn't the only off-the-beaten-path airport to benefit from the search for alternatives.

Columbus, Ohio's Rickenbacker Airport has become a cargo hub, one that Pittsburgh has tried to emulate in the past. Other alternative airports are being used in Chicago and in places like Huntsville, Alabama.

Mr. Bañez likened the situation with air cargo at major getaways to that involving the shipping containers stacked up in major water ports waiting to get unloaded.

Pittsburgh, on the other hand, is "doing a good job getting cargo in and out and that's leading to some momentum with business migrating their way," he noted.

To Ms. Cassotis, the turning point in the airport's bid to boost cargo traffic came in October 2017 when Qatar Airways launched twice-weekly service backed by millions of dollars in subsidies.

It represented Pittsburgh's first international freighter route.

For a while, it looked like the flight might be a bust. Qatar collected $1.48 million in subsidies the first year after failing to come close to meeting the tonnage goals needed for the authority to avoid the payments.

By December 2019, Qatar had suspended the flight. But a year later, it was back with new service — without any subsidies.

At the time, the freight forwarder that arranged the flight stated that it had returned because of the efficiencies offered in Pittsburgh compared to many major airports.

Ms. Cassotis said landing Qatar was a "big deal" in getting Pittsburgh noticed in the cargo industry.

"That sort of starts to feed on itself and it makes this region much more visible on the global stage," she said.

Qatar is operating three to four flights a week in Pittsburgh and has extended its run into the new year.

It isn't the only international carrier that has given the airport a try.

Cathay Pacific Airways has been operating twice weekly flights between Hanoi, Vietnam, and Pittsburgh, with a stop at its cargo terminal in Hong Kong, since August.

The flight currently is suspended because of the surge in COVID-19 cases but is expected to resume, perhaps in February.

It likewise marked a second time around for Cathay Pacific, which flew twice-weekly flights to and from Pittsburgh for three months in 2020, ending at Thanksgiving.

"Those are always good signs when airlines leave and come back. That means there's something there that's working," Mr. Bañez said.

Pittsburgh also has had visits by international carriers Finnair and Mexico's Mas Air. SpiceXpress, India's largest cargo carrier, started twice-weekly flights from the airport in July but has since discontinued them because of "operational challenges," according to the airport authority.

One of the biggest difference makers was the arrival of Amazon Air with a daily flight in May. Since then, it has added another daily flight and has risen to become the airport's third largest cargo carrier, with 4.8% of total traffic.

E-commerce, Mr. Bañez said, has become "the biggest story in air cargo" in the last five years or so.

"With the advent of Amazon Air, it's taken on a higher profile. It is a major driver of activity and growth, especially in the domestic market," he said.

The good news for Pittsburgh, he and Mr. Fried noted, is that Amazon likes to avoid congested major airports for smaller ones like Pittsburgh that are still close to big population centers.

"I see Amazon continuing their growth," Mr. Fried said.

Yet, for all of the focus on Amazon and international carriers, FedEx and UPS still remain the cargo workhorses at Pittsburgh International, accounting for 50.3% and 33.4% of all traffic, respectively, through the first 11 months of 2021.

Though others had tried to increase such traffic in the past, Ms. Cassotis ties the growth in airport cargo traffic to a deliberate strategy put together after she became CEO in 2015. The goal, she said, was to prove that Pittsburgh had the facilities and management capabilities to become a cargo center.

As a result, when opportunities came about, either before or during the pandemic, the airport was in position to take advantage of them.

"We knew exactly what to do and how to do it," she said. "We now have a presence on a global stage in this industry and there's more we can do."

Experts see more opportunities for Pittsburgh to expand its cargo business as demand grows and major hubs remain congested.

Mr. Fried called the construction of the cargo facility, funded with the help of an $18.7 million federal grant, a "wise investment," noting that cargo carriers and the freight forwarders that arrange the shipments want to be in and out as quickly as possible.

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"The management at Pittsburgh is very professional, very forward looking. That makes a difference," Mr. Bañez said. "If you're able to think outside the box and provide a solution to the cargo community, that's often rewarded."

Mr. Bañez has been attending cargo conferences around the world for 30 years. Many times over the last two decades, he would see Pittsburgh airport officials at those gatherings.

At first, it was a head scratcher, given that Pittsburgh wasn't really on anybody's cargo radar.

"It was a long-term strategy but it's paying off now," he said. "I give them credit for staying with it. They're seeing the fruits of their labor now."

Mark Belko: [email protected] or 412-263-1262

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