Anchorage's new hope for air cargo.

• Author: D'Oro, Rachel
• Position: Rise of air cargo industry in Anchorage, Alaska - Industry Overview

Air cargo industry leaders see Anchorage as a factory assembly and distribution center, delivering manufactured goods to the rest of the world.

On any given day, at least 93 planes with bellies full of documents, crates and boxes pass through the Anchorage International Airport, one after another, a visible testament to the seemingly endless growth of the air cargo industry.

Now the airport is banking on a Department of Transportation ruling to open up Alaska's skies even more. Airport officials and other industry players are trying to make better use of the 1996 Department of Transportation ruling that allows greater leeway for freight operations, and, airport officials say, will create a world-class air cargo hub.

"We're open for business," says Rich Wilson, the airport's development manager. "Part of our job is to get the word out to the industry. It's a special opportunity that economically makes sense in the long run."

So far, the benefits are only on paper, besides a $25 million cargo-transfer center under construction. The airport is the national leader in all-cargo "landed weight," an aircraft's maximum gross takeoff weight, topping 14 billion pounds last year. But most of the 31 foreign and domestic cargo carriers that stop in Anchorage use the airport only to refuel. No airlines have called on Anchorage specifically to take advantage of the DOT exemptions.

A TRANSFER CENTER

Airport officials, however, hope to change that by spreading the news about the ruling, which allows most international freight carriers stopping in Alaska to transfer goods between their own planes and domestic and other foreign carriers. Previously, this was allowed only with special permission from the federal government.

Under the ruling, carriers can swap (or "commingle") loads here, making the best use of space and fuel for shipments to Asia, Europe and North America. Fewer flying hours mean carriers can carry more cargo weight, or, in industry-speak, more payload.

Joanne Young, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who helped the airport attain the DOT ruling, says Alaska is an ideal link for North American, Asian and European carriers, the triad of global air freight handling. In recent years, she notes, there's been a huge amount of growth between Asian and European air cargo markets.

The DOT ruling was designed to give Alaska more flexibility to compete after passenger air traffic dwindled when Soviet airspace opened up in 1989, allowing shorter routes at a time...