National Air Cargo Conference Will Explore Ground-Hauling Trends

Air cargo is the fastest-growing segment of the aviation industry. But it is through ground transportation that air cargo companies have been growing recently.

That dynamic will be one issue to be discussed next week when a national air cargo conference is held in Kansas City. About 150 people from the aviation and transportation industries are expected to attend.

The 2005 Great Plains Regional Air Cargo Conference is being sponsored by the American Association of Airport Executives and Kansas City International Airport. The event, which begins with registration Sunday evening and concludes Tuesday, will be at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown.

Gary Bartek, KCIs manager of cargo development, said those attending will be airport executives, shippers and other industry players, such as cartage companies, commercial airlines and freight forwarders. Issues to be discussed by panels and featured speakers include technology developments, security and capacity issues. The conference is directed at those who are planning for air cargo and will offer information on the latest business, policy and legal developments.

Bartek said the conference would provide some exposure for KCI, which has 10 cargo carriers operating 22 flights each weekday.

Its an opportunity for Kansas City and KCI to showcase some of the factors that are important for the air cargo industry, he said. We want to achieve growth for the sector.

Bartek said air-freight companies in recent months have been growing more through their ground transportation services than through shipments by air. FedEx recently announced terminal expansions for FedEx Freight, its less-than-truckload carrier. Earlier this week, UPS announced that it was buying Overnite Corp., a big trucking company.

The industry right now is demonstrating strong growth in the ground sector, Bartek said. It helps the industry as a whole when you have these companies diversifying their product base.

Fuel prices, which have soared recently, affect air transportation more than moving shipments by ground, Bartek said.

Last year, Bartek said KCI benefited from BAX Global Inc.s decision to eliminate air service to such regional stops as Wichita; Des Moines, Iowa; Springfield; and Omaha, Neb.

The company now moves goods by ground from those cities to Kansas City, where the shipments can go by air to the companys hubs.

One of the conferences featured speakers is George Hamlin, director of MergeGlobal Inc., a consulting firm focusing on freight transportation economics and strategy. The firm puts out an annual forecast on the international air cargo industry, Bartek said.

Bartek was elected chairman of The International Air Cargo Association at a meeting last month in Istanbul, Turkey. He will serve a two-year term.

The appointment benefits Kansas City in the sense that our name will be frequently mentioned in industry affairs, he said.

Bartek added it was too early to know whether the association might eventually meet in Kansas City.

Right now, we just want to have a successful AAAE conference next week and build upon that for the future, he said.