Philadelphia Airport acquires 135 acres for cargo expansion

Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) recently acquired 135 acres on the west side of the airport for its new cargo area and is currently developing one of the first air cargo community systems (CCS) in the U.S., positioning the airport as an international and domestic cargo gateway. [caption id="attachment_64629" align="alignright" width="450"] Philadelphia Airport. Photo: PHL[/caption] PHL is currently capturing only 9% of a yearly $53 billion air cargo market in the airport’s catchment area, despite having a large FedEx presence and the second-largest UPS hub in the U.S., Stephanie Wear, director of air service development and cargo services at PHL, told Air Cargo World . Wear noted that most of the surrounding airfreight market goes to New York, which causes congestion. Growth in the airport’s air cargo sector has been developing organically during the past five years, most recently accelerated by the pandemic, said Wear. PHL reported a year-over-year increase in its cargo throughput of 3.8% year to date through March, to roughly 140,137 tonnes. Currently, PHL has about 450,000 square feet of cargo space, with six existing cargo facilities and a cold storage space specifically for American Airlines, said Wear. While the entire 135 acres will be dedicated to cargo, the specifics of how the area will be used is still up in the air. “Right now, we are considering two different options for the space,” said Wear. “One would be a single user, where one entity comes in and takes over the entire site ... or a multi-user ... Where we go and how we decide ... [will] define how we divide up [the space].” PHL has also involved the air cargo community in the planning process by asking operators and carriers what type of facilities they would like to see and what types of digitalization are needed, said Wear. The west cargo area is expected to be operational in three to four years, she said. Digitalization is one short-term focus of PHL’s strategic expansion plan and is currently being implemented through the development of a CCS, an electronic platform that enables the exchange of information between air cargo stakeholders. The platform is “basically a way for the entire logistics chain to talk and communicate throughout the whole process so that everything becomes more efficient,” said Wear. “This is a system that allows everything to be done digitally, so it takes out a lot of the middlemen and makes the process a lot smoother.” PHL plans to issue a public request for proposal (RFP) for the CCS in June, said Wear. After the RFP is out, the airport will contract with the selected company to implement the CCS and have it running by early 2022. Cargo communities are well-established in Europe and Asia, but few currently exist in the U.S. Atlanta (ATL) started work in 2019 to create the first CCS in the country. While PHL handles a variety of cargo shipments, including live animals, the airport typically transports e-commerce and has a large mail-processing program. However, it is currently focusing on specializing in time-sensitive shipments, Wear said. “We realized that one of the things that most differentiates PHL is the speed and efficiency we offer that makes us very competitive,” said Wear. “So we are going to focus on those high-value commodities that have a time element to them.” These include pharma, perishables and e-commerce.

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