Shippers and travelers find brand new ways to get there.

• Position: North Carolina air travel and shipping - Brief Article - Illustration - Statistical Data Included

At 3 a.m., locomotives trundle along. Under operators unload shipping the Norfolk Southern Corp. intermodal yard in Charlotte -- the next big development in airports.

The rail yard is just one element of an emerging air-, ground- and sea-shipping complex at Charlotte's landlocked airport. Elsewhere in the state, a Texas airline rode into the Triangle and will probably doom some small Eastern airports, thanks to an improbable ally -- highways. Charlotte passengers railed against soaring fares but flew in record numbers. Mexico replaced Japan as North Carolina's second-largest trading partner, while in the state of sprawl, public transit actually gained ground.

In September, US Airways Group Inc. announced new flights to Frankfurt and Paris from Charlotte/Douglas International, only a week after the Charlotte City Council ponied up $190 million in airport-expansion bonds. All three major Tar Heel airports wooed Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co., but it landed at Raleigh-Durham International in June. With only 12 daily departures, its presence is puny compared with Durham-based Midway Airlines Corp.'s 71. So why the fuss? Low fares.

Southwest immediately forced Midway and US Airways to cut theirs. US Airways had to increase flights by its discount line, MetroJet. "In the first three months Southwest was here, our passenger volume was up a third," says Mike Blanton, RDU director of public affairs. Passengers were already on the rise, from 6.7 million in 1997 to 7.2 million in 1998. Raleigh-Durham anguished over losing its American Airlines hub in 1995. It now has 24 airlines -- 14 major airlines and 10 commuter, compared with Charlotte's nine major carriers and three commuter lines. RDU's largest carrier is Midway. It capped its rebound from years of losses by ordering 17 new, $42 million Boeing 737s.

Piedmont Triad International has its own low-fare entry, AirTran, but airport Director Ted Johnson feels the impact of Southwest. He says it "is pulling [passengers] from as far as Richmond." At Rocky Mount, passengers are down a third. With eight small airports, Eastern North Carolina has too many runways for too few airlines. With access to improved highways such as Interstate 40, many passengers opt for cheaper fares and better schedules at RDU.

Charlotte, meanwhile, created a task force to seek more competition after a government study concluded that the US Airways lock on its airport has created the nation's highest air fares. It carried...