Terrible congestion at Sea-Tac International Airport and the prospect for improvement in U.S. air-cargo tonnages have Spokane International Airport positioning itself for future air-cargo growth.


In June, an Asian air-cargo carrier inquired about moving its operation here from Sea-Tac, says Todd Woodard, director of marketing and public relations at Spokane International.


The Asian carrier decried the high cost of doing business at Sea-Tac, and lamented delays in getting shipments to and from its planes because of congestion on Puget Sound-area highways, Woodard says.


One of the problems they have at Sea-Tac is perishables perishing before they can get them on their airplanes, he says.


Woodard declines to name the Asian carrier, but says that if it moves to Spokane International, it likely would begin service here by flying charter cargo flights to Asia once or twice a week.


Sea-Tac spokesman Bob Parker says the crowding at Sea-Tac is so bad that we are truly constrained on cargo, to the point that we think 25 percent of the cargo that would come to our airport leaks to other locations or methods of transportation.


Even with Sea-Tacs flight schedule reduced because of falling passenger numbers, nearly 20 percent of the flights into the airport arrive more than 15 minutes after their published arrival times, and such delays are a particular problem for air-cargo carriers, which must keep tight timetables, Parker says.


In June, the Port of Seattle, which operates Sea-Tac, announced that the big airports long-planned third runway could be in operation by 2008if litigation is resolved soon enough for the project to resume by the 2004 construction season.


Yet, Woodard says that air-cargo carriers are likely to want to expand quicklyand not wait on airport improvementswhen their domestic tonnages begin to rebound.


The last thing you want to be in this industry is behind the curve, he says.


Even when Sea-Tacs third runway is done, it will only support the airports current level of operations, Parker says. That, says Woodard, just highlights our position that cargo should come in here.


John Faulkner, Sea-Tacs business-development manager, says that Sea-Tac will address cargo issues for the short term in a comprehensive development plan its drafting. Nonetheless, he says, Its not going to be a dramatic increase in space for cargo carriers.


Sea-Tacs problems in serving cargo carriers include a real constriction on aircraft parking Faulkner says. Because the airport is so busy, it cant guarantee to cargo carriers a parking site for an air-cargo plane on a particular day or time, he says.


The Puget Sound airport also is plagued by a lack of land for carriers to build new terminals of the size they like, he says.


Sea-Tac covers 2,000 acres, and the construction of its third runway will add another 500 acres, Parker says. Woodard says Spokane International has a 5,400-acre site, much of which is undeveloped, giving it room for new facilities.


Despite the constraints that plague Sea-Tac, the Puget Sound airport has done some things to meet cargo carriers needs.


We have been able to get some carriers to agree to use a joint facility, Faulkner says.


Meanwhile, he says, the air-cargo industry is changing in ways that have implications for many airports.


In recent years, trucking has become far more efficient and much less costly, with improved on-time deliveries and innovations such as shipment tracking, Faulkner says. Because of the falling cost of surface transportation, air-cargo carriers are routing shipments off their planes and onto trucks when it makes sense to do so, and that gives local highway-congestion issues added weight when air-cargo carriers evaluate where to put new terminals.


Also, thanks to new, more-efficient engines, Boeing 747-400 air-cargo freighters, the industrys biggest, now can fly from Japan, Korea, and even northern China to Seattle in 11 hoursand dont have to stop in Anchorage, or make crew changes, Faulkner says.


A lot of aircraft are overflying traditional stops, such as Anchorage, Faulkner says. He adds that Carriers also are trying to fly out over the ocean more to avoid having to pay to Canada overflight charges, which are levied by the mile and can add up.


Faulkner didnt know whether direct 747-400 freighter flights from Asia could overfly Seattle and land in Spokane, but said hes certain that continuing changes in the air-cargo industry will mean new opportunities for regional airports, such as Spokanes. As bigger airports get busier, he says, Naturally, theres going to be less space available for cargo growth, and displaced shipping volume must go somewhere.


To take advantage of the opportunities that will arise, local airport officials need to know exactly what their cost advantages are in terms of real estate, labor, and utilities, and what their transit times are to major markets, Faulkner says. They need to know such things so well that theyre on the tip of the tongue, and then they need to get out there in front of the airlines with their message, he says.


Woodard says he makes sales calls to carriers such as Federal Express, United Parcel Service, Airborne Express, and others on a continuing basis, provides them with information about Spokane International, and sends them a regular newsletter. He says Spokane International continually is strategizing with the carriers about their needs for facilitiesand had one particularly significant near miss a couple of years ago.


Before air-cargo tonnages stalled in 2001, Federal Express planned to lease a 120,000-square-foot terminal that the airport was to build; FedEx would have consolidated all of its Spokane-area operations there, Woodard says.


We were within five business days of signing this lease, Woodard says. We worked on this for three or four years. If they would have signed the lease, we would have built the building. Instead, in May 2001 FedEx froze capital expenditures systemwide, he says.


Later that year, the terrorist attacks struck New York and Washington, D.C., and U.S. air-cargo volumes just have not picked up since then, although international volumes have grown, Woodard says.


Still, in the past, domestic air-cargo tonnages generally have mirrored the health of the nations economy, and the U.S. gross domestic product is expected to surge next year.


When U.S. air-cargo tonnages do snap back, several factors should make Spokane International a competitive site for new carrier facilities, Woodard says.


Spokane Internationals landing fees, at $706 per incoming flight for a fully loaded 747-400 freighter, are far lower than Sea-Tacs $2,159 and Portlands $1,713. Other airports are even higher, with New Yorks JFK airport at $3,365, Vancouver, British Columbia, at $3,440, and Tokyo at a whopping $7,147.


Several years ago, Spokane became a site for transloading, or the transfer of cargo between air-cargo freighters, which sometimes is done after two planes have been parked side by side on the tarmac. An analysis prepared for Spokane International in January 2002 says, At present, FedEx is currently performing transload operations at (Spokane) to and from Memphis; Oakland; Seattle; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Great Falls, Mont. UPS is transloading freight between planes coming to and from Seattle, Portland, Des Moines, Dallas, and Louisville. Only a very small portion of the total volume generated in these transload operations originates, or is destined for, the Spokane regional market.


The report adds, Both FedEx and UPS have major operations in the Seattle region, but are constrained in their ability to expand in that city due to the overcrowded facilities at King County International Airport (Boeing Field) and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. By utilizing Spokane, the integrator carriers can maximize the utilization of their aircraft serving the Pacific Northwest and beyond.


Woodard says some transloading is done here of freighters from Asia that have flown to Spokane after clearing customs at either Vancouver, British Columbia, or Anchorage, and transloading volume at Spokane International continues to grow. Having that existing operation here puts us in a much stronger position to go to FedEx or UPS as a potential site for new facilities, he says.


Spokane International is completing this year the $20 million expansion of Taxiway G to serve a new, 80-acre air-cargo area. Next year, it will build a $3.4 million general aviation ramp to relocate all corporate and general-aviation operations away from the new air-cargo area. By ending the mixing of corporate and general-aviation aircraft with air-cargo planes during operations, the airport will enhance safety for all aircraft and improve the efficiency of air-cargo operations, Woodard says. Buildings for corporate and general-aviation aircraft operators will be constructed in 2005.


Also in 2005, Spokane International will extend its 9,000-foot main runway by 3,000 feet. Woodard says that with the runway at its current length, We can land any aircraft short of the shuttle. What we cant do is get a fully loaded 747-400 wide-bodied air freighter off the ground on takeoff. The runway extension would allow such planes to take off here when fully loaded.


A Category III instrumentation-landing system, installed in 1997, has eliminated low-visibility landing issues.