Cargo is Big Business for Columbia Airport

Columbia Business Report
www.columbiabusinessreport.com
By Chuck Crumbo 

Like clockwork, jet freighters bearing the colors of their corporate owners daily zoom in and out of Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

Nearly half of these large planes are brown, the official color of UPS, which has a regional hub at the airport. And a good number are FedEx purple — with the “Ex” painted red.

Cargo is big business for the airport and local officials expect it to increase as more companies expand or move into the Midlands. 

And, to support future growth of the airport and local economy, officials also are working to build infrastructure needed to move passengers and freight more quickly and efficiently. 

Columbia is the state’s No. 1 airport for cargo. In 2012, Columbia airport handled 65,617 tons of freight, more than twice as much as the 28,766 tons that moved through Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, and almost four times greater than the 17,047 tons handled at Charleston International Airport.

Cargo represents 10% of the airport’s overall operating revenue, said Dan Mann, airport executive director.

“What’s really important is that cargo helps keep our landing fees down for the (passenger) airlines,” Mann said.

The airport charges airlines — both passenger and cargo haulers — a fee to land. The fee is calculated on how much the planes weigh when they land at the airport.

Cargo accounted for 37% of the landing weight of nearly 15,000 commercial planes that set down at the airport in 2012 and more than a third of the landing fees that were collected, according to airport statistics.

Without a strong cargo business, landing fees would jump to about $5 per 1,000 pounds from the current figure of $3 per 1,000 pounds, Mann said. Being able to charge airlines lower landing fees could result in fare reductions and boost passenger traffic, Mann said. 

UPS impact 
The major player in the airport’s cargo business is Atlanta-based UPS, which has operated a Southeast hub out of Columbia since 1996.

While UPS has in recent years shifted some package-handling work to the carrier’s Worldport air hub in Louisville, Ky., the Columbia operation remains an important link in its network.

“Columbia has served us very well as our Southeast region air hub, as we average about 10 flights daily through the year,” said UPS spokesman Jeff Wofford. 

During the past two Christmas shipping seasons, UPS upped its daily flight total to 13 planes to accommodate the additional cargo, Wofford added.

Having an Amazon fulfillment center located about 3 miles from the airport near interstates 26 and 77, outside of Cayce, has helped UPS business.

“Since the new fulfillment center opened last year, we’ve definitely seen more of those packages in our sort in Columbia,” Wofford said. 

Customers frequently will locate distribution centers near UPS hubs like in Columbia, Wofford said. “This increases the customer’s flexibility, many times allowing for later drop-off times. And it’s good for us to see more of those parcels through our network, so we consider it a win-win.”

Overall, UPS carried 69% of the cargo that was loaded on planes at Columbia in 2012, according to airport statistics. Its Memphis, Tenn.-based rival, FedEx, handled 25.4% of local cargo.

Connector campaign 
To help grow the airport’s cargo business, Midlands leaders have been pushing for the construction of a 3.2 mile, four-lane highway, linking the airport and I-26.

The project — called the “Airport Connector” — would open up 100 acres of airport property for development and provide direct access for cargo carriers like UPS and FedEx to distribution centers and manufacturing facilities near the interchange of I-26 and I-77.

The connector is the second half of John Hardee Expressway that runs between Airport Boulevard and Platt Springs Road. The road was completed in 2004. 

The Midstate Chambers Coalition has made completion of the expressway one of its key projects for economic development and is trying to win state support for the connector, said Randy Halfacre, president and CEO of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce and coalition chairman.

The coalition includes executives and officials of 19 chambers and 11 counties in the middle of South Carolina.

The connector project is “shovel-ready,” meaning that work could begin right away, Halfacre said.

He also noted that local government entities have committed to a local match of $13.7 million.

Halfacre, who also is mayor of Lexington, and other government leaders have lobbied the state Department of Transportation to find $67 million to complete the project. 

Local officials think there’s a strong case for building the connector. 

The route would connect the airport to the $313 million manufacturing facility that Nephron Pharmaceuticals is building as well as Amazon’s 1.25 million-square-foot fulfillment center at Saxe Gotha Industrial Park, plus a number of other distribution and manufacturing facilities near the airport.

In addition, the connector, according to one study, would trim the UPS hub’s operations costs by $500,000 a year.

It’s likely supporters of the connector will be have to wait and see if the project is part of the state’s new transportation plan, which is expected to be ready by the end of the year. 

“We want to make sure we’re keeping the connector on the front-burner,” Halfacre said. “This needs to be done.”