The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released its Preliminary CY 2021 All Cargo, Rank Order report from ACAIS. ACAIS is the FAA’s Air Carrier Activity database, which is used to determine subsidy apportionment under the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP). The overall trend continued to show that air cargo is a large growth area for the industry.
The numbers reveal some interesting trends over the past year. Not surprisingly, Anchorage grew as Asian cargo traffic rebounded. Anchorage is strategically located between the US and most common cargo destinations in Asia. These numbers don’t reflect the additional growth expected for Anchorage in 2022 as additional cargo operators now stop in Anchorage due to the restriction of Russian airspace after the war in Ukraine.
In the top three, it was surprising though to see that Memphis, Fedex’s largest hub, actually saw a slight decrease in cargo from 2020. UPS, one of FedEx’s main competitors based at Louisville, did see a 4.47% increase in traffic.
The Preliminary All Cargo report ranks 140 US Airports according to landed cargo weight in US pounds. The top 3 airports in 2021 were:
- ANC – Ted Stevens Anchorage showed an 8.69% increase in landed weight, from 22,882,827,499 pounds in 2020 to 24,870,445,702 pounds in 2021. ANC is a major cargo hub midway between Hong Kong and the continental US, used particularly for fuel stops and flight crew changes.
- MEM – Memphis International revealed a 1.15% decline, from 25,156,876,655 pounds in 2020 down to 24,867,472,042 pounds in 2021. MEM is home to the Federal Express Superhub.
- SDF – Louisville Muhammad Ali increased 4.47%, from 16,756,934,214 pounds in 2020 to 17,506,400,843 pounds in 2021. SDF is home to United Parcel Service’s Worldport.
A couple of surprises
The list put numbers behind a few known trends. The largest trend is that any airport with an Amazon ‘hub’ (as part of a large regional distribution center) saw extensive growth in 2021 as more and more people utilized delivery for common goods. On this list, Toledo (TOL – Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express) is the airport that reported the largest percentage increase, a whopping 483.22%! The airport’s growth put them in the top 100 cargo airports for the first time since BAX Global maintained a hub there back in the 1990s.
Fort Worth Alliance (AFW) also saw a large 45.75% growth, placing it in the top 20 cargo airports for the first time. Lakeland International in central Florida also rose into the top 50 at number 42. They grew cargo service by 263% in 2021 as Amazon ramped up operations at the airport.
