Rockford Airport reports record cargo figures, advances e-commerce development

Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) reported record cargo figures for the first 10 months of this year and will soon begin expansion efforts to develop the airport into a regional hub for e-commerce.

RFD, located 85 miles northwest of Chicago, reported moving 850,000 tons of cargo at its facilities through October this year, beating the total amount of cargo that made its way through the airport in 2017 by 22 percent. This feat was made more impressive, considering that figures for the peak-season months of the year are still to come.

Airport operators are also preparing to further develop RFD into a Midwest regional hub, which already receives cargo for Amazon carriers and UPS for e-commerce freight.

ABX Air, Air Transport International (ATI) and Atlas Air currently carry e-commerce cargo through Rockford for online retail giant Amazon. ATI and ABX Air’s parent company, Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), currently leases an 80,000-square-foot cargo terminal from the airport for warehousing and freight forwarding. In total, cargo carriers serving Amazon operate six flights a day through Rockford.

UPS operates its second-largest airfreight hub at RFD and has increased its daily cargo flights to Rockford from 34 to more than 40. This number is expected to grow to more than 50 daily flights following Thanksgiving, and may rise to nearly 70 daily flights two weeks before Christmas.

Rockford is also preparing to further develop support for airport freight operations, with a US$5 million expansion of its freight apron currently under way, and a $10 million, 120,000-square-foot expansion of the airport’s cargo warehouse scheduled to begin Nov. 26.