US airport signals airfreight ambitions in a busy week at Air Cargo Europe
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) has announced a second major cargo initiative in a week, clearly signalling the US hub’s airfreight ambitions.
Cargo handler Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) has won the tender to operate Hartsfield-Jackson new Cargo Building C.
The WFS announcement at Air Cargo Europe in Munich came shortly after the Hartsfield-Jackson cargo team signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) to promote cargo trade and investment between metro Atlanta and the Netherlands.
WFS will commence operations in Cargo Building C in late 2019 and will announce its launch customers shortly.
WFS is taking a long-term lease on the new Atlanta facility as part of a multi-million-dollar investment to support the airport’s strong cargo growth. In 2018, cargo volumes at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport rose 4.7% to over 700,000 tonnes, which followed a 7.5% increase in the previous year.
Located in the airport’s South Cargo Area, the newly-constructed facility combines a 120,000 sq ft warehouse and 20,000 sq ft of office space and will incorporate freighter ramp handling facilities and a container bypass handling system.
To support temperature-controlled products, it will also house 2,500 sq ft of dedicated cooling facilities capable of storing 140 skids plus ULDs for handling pharmaceuticals as well as other perishables cargoes.
WFS is also commencing the process to become the first cargo handling partner in Atlanta to achieve Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certification.
Mike Simpson, WFS’ executive vice president Americas, said: “This is a really big win for WFS and for the airlines we will be working with in Atlanta. As the biggest handler in North America, present at over 60 major airports, Atlanta has been a significant gap in our network.”
Elliott Paige, airport director, air service development at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, commented: “Our goal is to offer the highest quality of handling services to attract high-value cargo onboard the more than 900,000 flight operations from Atlanta annually.
“With more airlines recognizing the outstanding opportunities we offer, WFS will play an important role in Atlanta’s future growth by further enhancing our reputation as a first class, and safe and secure, cargo hub.”
Schiphol MoU to boost flows between the gateways
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta’s MoU with Schiphol will enable an exchange of data between AMS and ATL to facilitate end-to-end planning and capacity optimisation, extend the benefits of the AMS Cargo Community system to ATL, and boost trade flows between the two gateways.
“This collaborative agreement will enable us to promote the benefits of strengthening the Netherlands as a gateway to Europe, and Atlanta Airport as a gateway to the Atlantic, the Midwest, and the South of the USA,” said Bart Pouwels, head of cargo, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
From September this year, and throughout 2020, AMS and ATL will be working on the formation of the Atlanta Cargo Network, with the aim to increase exports from ATL to AMS of agricultural and manufacturing goods produced in Georgia, which will be measured by an economic impact assessment study due in 2021.
