Coal and steel were the mainstay of the economy and prosperity of both Pittsburgh and Liège. Steel produced in Pittsburgh was once used to construct the Golden Gate Bridge. However, the industrial landscape has changed dramatically at both locations. In Liège, the transition towards new, clean technologies and modern transportation has already been accomplished.
In contrast, Pittsburgh, a city of two million, is in the midst of transformation with a new focus on life science, health care, high tech, pharmaceuticals and banking, among others.
The change in the macroeconomic environment is also affecting Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). As a result, the management has placed air freight matters high on its agenda.
This has been confirmed by Bryan Dietz in an exclusive call with CargoForwarder Global. He is senior VP Air Service & Commercial Development at the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which operates Pittsburgh International (PIT) and Allegheny County Airport. Bryan must feel like Prince Charming in the fairy tale where he kisses Sleeping Beauty awake after an eternally long sleep, just that his Sleeping Beauty is Pittsburgh’s air freight business. That said, a targeted wakeup call is appropriate because PIT offers enormous potential for cargo throughput which would benefit the local economy, the industry in a wider sense, and secure jobs, outlines Mr. Dietz.
Sandwich situation
To start with, PIT faces a sandwich situation. Geographically, it is squeezed halfway between the giants New York (JFK) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD). However, Dietz and his team do not see these as direct competitors but as airports that have passed their zenith. Due to their size, operational hiccups, and sheer traffic volumes, they cannot offer the same level of service compared to agile, efficient, and fast airports such as Pittsburgh International. Thanks to its 4 runways, PIT is a congestion-free airport, has no slot problems and is operational 24/7/365.
Cheaper and more flexible
Then there is the cost difference as demonstrated by the landing fees that are roughly 50% cheaper than those that carriers have to pay at ORD or JFK. This is because the base costs at PIT are lower. It is a self-powered airport, thanks to the availability of abundant natural gas and a large number of solar panels – 9,000 in total – which supply clean energy. Agility combined with limited energy costs and lower charges are therefore selling points for Dietz and his team to place their airport on the international air freight map.
Market closeness
And the executive emphasizes a third aspect: “45% of the entire U.S. population lives within an 8-hour radius of Pittsburgh, measured in terms of truck driving times.” A truck needs 6 hours to NYC, 7 to 8 hours to Chicago, depending on traffic situations, and 4 hours each to Toronto and Washington DC, according to traffic statistics. “From wheels down to the onforwarding of goods, we need only a couple of hours, not days as the statistics of our larger peers evidence.”
“Cargo 4” will start in Q4, 2024
In order to meet the expectations of stakeholders in terms of infrastructure, management has initiated working groups with participants from all sectors of air freight, including forwarding agents, airlines, trucking companies, ground handlers, customs officials and regulators. The development of the project was strongly and long supported by advisor, Steven Verhasselt, who held a leading position at Liège Airport for many years. His experience gained there and during some other projects, among them Leipzig/Halle Airport, was valuable to develop cargo-friendly solutions for PIT.
The main result of consultations, discussions with stakeholders, and managerial decisions, is a 7,100 m2 state-of-the-art cargo terminal called Cargo 4, which is currently under construction and is scheduled to go online in Q4, 2024. It will be equipped with cutting edge technology to facilitate the fast throughput of freight and offer forwarders multiple truck docks for fast unloading or loading of their goods. The design of the warehouse allows for very flexible use, as it can be quickly adapted to changing market requirements. Bryan Dietz mentions criteria such as sudden increases in pharmaceutical shipments, a high volume of e-commerce or the need for fast handling of bulk cargo.
“We are building and will lease the facility,” Joe Rotterdam, Director Air Service Development, Allegheny County Airport Authority explained to CargoForwarder Global. The executive thus contradicts earlier reports that a developer had secured the operations of the warehouse for at least a decade.
More intercontinental operations needed
All in all, management has set the course for leveraging the airport’s cargo position. However, the handling volumes are still very manageable, as seen by the throughput of 86,000 tons in 2023. What the airport lacks for achieving a critical volume, are long-haul connections. That is the biggest difference to the earlier mentioned Liège Bierset Airport in Belgium. Apart from occasional charter flights and domestic operations by UPS and FedEx, only British Airways operates scheduled intercontinental flights, connecting the Pennsylvanian city with London Heathrow six times a week, using a passenger B787 jetliner. Icelandair will follow suit in May, deploying a B737 MAX on flights to Reykjavik. The aircraft can accommodate 5 tons of cargo per flight, the bulk of which is transferred directly to flights destined to airports in continental Europe.
Finally, PIT’s management will also have to work on balancing the import/export ratio (20% / 80%). With exports only likely to increase if additional intercontinental airlines, especially European carriers, add Pittsburgh to their transatlantic network.
