Amazon partner ABX to start daily freighter flights to Rockford, Illinois

Cargo-only carrier ABX Air is tight-lipped about whose cargo will be routed through Illinois-based Rockford International Airport (RFD), but with the recent deal between ABX parent company ATSG and Amazon, the answer might just involve a certain Seattle-based e-commerce giant that sounds like a river in Brazil.

Starting Sept. 6, ABX will operate a daily 767 freighter flight out of RFD, near Chicago, with the possibility of ramping up to “three or four daily flights by the end of the year,” according to reports from Rockford’s local media.

“ABX isn’t saying who their customer is, so it’s anyone’s guess,” Ken Ryan, the airport’s director of business development and cargo told the Rockford Register. “All I can tell you for sure is that there will be one flight daily to begin with and then it will quickly ramp up to two, three, four flights a day. We expect a very quick progression of cargo activity.”

ABX Air is teaming with Pinnacle Logistics to provide freight-handling services on the ground at a 72,000-square-foot, ramp-side warehouse, situated just west of the UPS hub.

RFD is the third-largest airport in Illinois. Some 30 industrial tenants and vendors have operations there, and it is home to the largest regional parcel-sorting facility in the UPS system.

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