Consultant Insight: DFW offers Texas-sized benefits for shippers

[caption id="attachment_69752" align="alignright" width="298"] Cathy Roberson, Cargo Facts Consulting senior consultant and Air Cargo World columnist[/caption] The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) has been crowned the busiest airport in the United States, and the second busiest in the world behind Chengdu (CTU), according to analysis by VariFlight. Data from global travel data provider OAG noted that DFW had 12,132 landing and departing flights in May, enough to make DFW the busiest hub in the U.S., and figures from travel analytics firm Cirium also confirm DFW’s status, thanks in particular to American Airlines. Headquartered in Fort Worth, American Airlines utilizes DFW as a central hub for connecting flights. Its geographic position gives it a large number of connecting city pairs and, in particular, an advantage for domestic connectivity within a relatively short period of time between city pairings. This advantage also extends to cargo, although this may seem counterintuitive since cargo volume is down 11.1% at DFW through May year-to-date. In May alone, year-over-year cargo volumes declined 24.1%. However, closer examination reveals that the share of total cargo has shifted in favor of the integrators. In May 2019, the integrators’ share of total cargo was 49.9% compared with 54.7% for May 2020. The gain was due to the decline in cargo carried by passenger airlines. On the ground-shipping side, FedEx Ground is expanding its North Texas distribution footprint with a major industrial lease south of Dallas that will be 750,000 square feet and is slated to open in November, in time for the holiday peak season. In addition, FedEx office headquarters recently moved into a 300,000-square-foot facility in Plano, just north of Dallas. UPS also has a large presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In 2017, the company announced a $200 million investment in a new regional hub in southeast Arlington, to be its largest distribution center in North Texas and serve as a key site for ground shipping throughout the state. As noted by a local newspaper at the time of the announcement, UPS has eight additional package-delivery facilities, an air gateway, ground freight and supply chain logistics centers. Alongside the integrators, Amazon figures prominently in the Texas airfreight landscape. Amazon is expanding its Amazon Air ground network with a regional air hub at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) in Austin, and a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment facility in nearby Pflugerville. In 2019, Amazon opened its regional air hub at DFW; today the nearly 11.5 million-square-foot space is considered the largest industrial building in North Texas. According to Costar, which provides commercial real estate information, Amazon will add an additional 2.3 million square feet of distribution space in the area through the end of this year. Just this week, the e-commerce giant announced plans for a 1 million-square-foot facility south of Dallas. As noted in a previous Air Cargo World article, United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement goes into effect July 1, but will air cargo providers benefit? , Amazon may also be positioning itself to take advantage of the agreement. The e-commerce giant is said to be building a fulfillment facility in El Paso County close to Interstate 10, less than 20 miles from the Mexican border. While DFW’s claim as the busiest airport may only be temporary, its location remains highly prized by cargo providers, particularly for time-definite services. From the Dallas-Fort Worth area, cargo can reach most of the U.S. within one to two days, a great benefit for transporting items such as e-commerce parcels, pharmaceuticals, spare parts for the aerospace and automotive industries, and other goods, not to mention the fact it could serve as a major fulfillment hub for cross-border e-commerce with Mexico.

Consultant Insight: DFW offers Texas-sized benefits for shippers

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