The San Francisco Air Cargo Association’s annual "Airline Fair," staged near SFO last month, generated a lot of goodwill and fellowship, but also was freighted with a new sense of urgency.
By Patrick BurNson
Published: June, 2007
Obviously, this trade community is going to be growing in the near future, said SFACA president, Linda Frankal, and the timing of our event could not have been better.
That’s because even the mainstream media here had played up the FAA’s recent report on air cargo infrastructure – or more pointedly, the lack thereof. SFO and Oakland International Airport, in fact, were two major load centers cited in a statement made by U. S. Secretary of Transportation, Mary E. Peters, as being in immediate need of expansion.
In her comments on the FAA report, Capacity Needs in the National Airspace System, Peters said that the San Francisco Bay area is among those regions where existing airports are constrained by urban development.
This study makes it clear that we need to develop solutions that match travelers with the best way to get to their destinations, Peters said. We must find a way to turn this challenge into an
opportunity to keep our families free to travel and our businesses free to succeed.
This was the FAA’s second report in three years, and came basically to the same conclusion: San Francisco and Oakland shippers will need to have access to alternative airports if the metropolitan area continues to expand at its current pace.
Looking around the Airline Fair, one could see evidence that more carriers are going to be vying for cargo here. Southwest Airlines, for example, has returned after being away for several years. And while no one from Virgin America was here, (it will begin service later this year) the carrier’s Atlantic Cargo representative was busy promoting the existing SFO-Chicago service.
According to the FAA report, Oakland International Airport will need to add capacity in the next eight years in addition to the ongoing improvements now underway. Airport spokesmen noted that the $300 million expansion project − adding five new gates − is nearing completion, but allowed that most of the work has been passenger focused.
The Bay Area will be an example of a capacity-constrained metropolitan area where runway construction may not be an option over the next decade, the report stated. In these cases, demand management, regulatory or economic solutions and other market mechanisms need to be investigated.
As a consequence, both SFO and Oakland officials are working with Mineta San Jose International Airport planners on a regional strategy to accommodate more cargo business. Among those sites being considered as safety valves are small local airports in Concord and elsewhere in the East Bay.
