Chicago Rockford, Cologne Bonn airports partner for direct service in Q3

[caption id="attachment_64533" align="alignright" width="450"] Photo/Chicago Rockford Airport[/caption] Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) and Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN) are working to launch direct cargo service between the two points in the third quarter of 2021 as part of an Airport Cooperation Agreement announced March 15. Ken Ryan, director of cargo at RFD, told Air Cargo World that both airports have aggressive growth plans, and the partnership is an opportunity to focus on digitalization improvements and new air cargo service, both locally and between the regions. “I have little doubt that we will have scheduled service between Rockford and Cologne before the end of this year, hopefully by the third quarter,” Ryan said. RFD continues to target pure cargo airlines for the new route because passenger airlines with cargo flights are unlikely to split operations between two airports in one region, Ryan said. Strategically, targeting all-cargo carriers makes RFD more competitive with nearby Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD). “While it might work better for [combination carriers] to split operations, it’s not the easiest sell,” said Ryan. “Instead, we’re going after airfreight forwarders and various cargo airlines to bring in, or have them approach, our customers about the efficiencies of the Rockford airport.” The synergies between the markets served by the two airports make the partnership ideal. Germany is the largest European import-export market for Illinois. “We want to learn their best practices, especially as it relates to digitization and real estate,” said Ryan. “Right away we started to learn things in our conversations. For example, Cologne Airport has a full-scale real estate department that we lack because we’re leaner. However, as we spoke about real estate, their thoughts blended with many of ours and we realized it was a wise decision to put together this strategic alliance.” RFD has 3,000 acres available for growth, and Ryan said the airport will look to airline customers and freight forwarders to build out that real estate. “We want to approach distributors and manufacturers engaged in the e-commerce space,” he said. The pandemic spurred the speed of growth in e-commerce cargo, said Ryan, leading to heavy cargo deliveries with e-commerce packages aboard. The largest cargo increase came from UPS last year, with Amazon making nearly a dozen daily 767F flights. “We try to separate the e-commerce from the heavy cargo freight, similar to what Cologne is doing,” said Ryan. “The process of separating international e-commerce from the heavy cargo when they travel together is a great idea that we’re strongly pursuing.” Named the fastest-growing airport in the world in 2019 by Airports Council International, RFD processed more than 1.2 million tonnes of landed weight in 2020, with a 17% increase in throughput from the previous year. Cargo volumes have more than tripled in the past five years, according to the airport.

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