hile some living in the Lower 48 may think Anchorage is at the end of the world, in reality the city is located right in the middle of the world. At least, so far as the aviation business is concerned. The commercial aviation industry has extensive air cargo operations that they perform at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on a daily basis.

Situated at the top of the world and near equidistance between Europe, Asia, and North America, the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is less than ten hours by air to 95 percent of major global markets. It serves as the primary link between cities in Asia and North America, as approximately 80 percent of all cargo flights operating across the Pacific make a “technical stop” at Anchorage to refuel, change crews, and (in some cases) to transfer cargo. It is why major integrator airlines like FedEx, UPS, and DHL all have a significant presence at the airport in support of their growing international cargo operations.

The airport continues to be one of the busiest in the world for cargo carriers. It currently ranks as the fifth largest cargo airport in the world and the second largest in the United States. Internationally, it ranks only behind Hong Kong, Memphis, Shanghai, and Incheon (Korea). Domestically, only Memphis, home to FedEx’s major hub, sees more cargo traffic. Each week the airport handles more than 500 landings of wide-bodied cargo freighters.

The primary advantage for cargo carriers to make stops at Anchorage is that they can maximize their payload to fuel ratio. In other words, by being able to carry more cargo and less fuel, they can operate with more efficiency and greater profitably. A carrier can carry an additional 100,000 pounds of revenue cargo by making a fuel stop in Anchorage. It’s a simple—but powerful—incentive to make use of the Anchorage stopover. Another advantage is Anchorage’s unique cargo transfer authorities granted to it by the US Department of Transportation in 2003. These expanded cargo transfer rights make Anchorage extremely flexible for the cargo airlines, which can make use of time on the ground refueling to also carry out transfers between their own planes and those of other carriers.

These transfer rights include “on-line” transfers between a carrier’s own aircraft; “inter-line” transfers between one carrier and another carrier; “co-mingling” of US and non-US cargo; and “change-of-gauge” transfers from, for example, a wide-bodied freighter aircraft to one or more smaller aircraft flying to potentially multiple destinations from Anchorage.

To help facilitate the use of these unique transfer rights, the airport has recently issued an “Expression of Interest” request that seeks for qualified applicants to outline their capabilities and expertise in the design, construction, and operation (or lease) of a Quick Cargo Center warehouse facility at the airport. According to the request, “ANC [Ted Steven Anchorage International Airport’s IATA code] is using this EOI to explore operation of a Quick Cargo Center that will take advantage of ANC’s special cargo transfer rights. Just as passengers use terminals to wait for their connecting flight, ANC envisions the Quick Cargo Center being a temporary cargo storage facility for cargo that arrives on one flight and needs to wait for a connection to another flight. The facility would be a secure, climate-controlled environment with close proximity to aircraft parking positions where tugs can quickly store and retrieve pallets.”

One of the growth engines for cargo activity at the airport is the ongoing expansion of trade between the United States and China. In addition to FedEx, UPS, and several other major US all-cargo airlines, a number of mainland China and Hong Kong-based carriers also operate flights between Chinese and American cities via Anchorage. These Chinese carriers include Air China, China Cargo Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Yangtze River Express, and Cathay Pacific.

Connecting other Asian cities to US points via Anchorage are cargo carriers like Korean Air, Eva Air (Taiwan), Singapore Airlines, Asiana Airlines (Korea), and Nippon Cargo Airlines (Japan).

Another factor propelling growth is the rapid expansion of global e-commerce. Consider the millions of packages traveling around the world each day, shipped by e-commerce behemoths like Amazon, Alibaba, and eBay. In a recent air cargo industry publication, Jim Szczesniak, the manager of the Anchorage airport, commented, “On a typical day, we can see six B747 freighters heading to Amazon’s base in Cincinnati. We can also see around thirty UPS wide-body operations and seventeen FedEx wide body operations.” He went on to say, “Total air cargo growth in 2017 at Anchorage was up over 7 percent to 2.7 million tons, and we know that a large driver of that growth was e-commerce.”

For Alaska, and for Anchorage, the success of the airport’s international cargo operations is significant. From a historical perspective, success with cargo has helped to offset the loss of international passenger operations that, at one time, enabled Anchorage to be known as the “Air Crossroads of the World.” The airport still maintains some international passenger operations, of course, but these are now almost always summer seasonal service operations. These carriers include Condor, Japan Airlines, Iceland Air, and Air Canada. Possible new international service offerings may be forthcoming in the near future. There has been interest expressed by several carriers, for example, to provide direct passenger service between Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province, and Anchorage. Harbin is a sister-city with Anchorage.

But cargo operations are clearly the breadwinner these days. The airport continually works to support current cargo customers and to recruit others that may wish to enter the Anchorage market. They meet regularly with existing customers and make presentations to prospective carriers at international air cargo conferences to highlight the airport’s advantages and attributes.

The airport, overall, including both domestic and international passenger and cargo operations, is a major driver of the Anchorage economy. It is estimated that one in ten jobs in the Anchorage area are a result of business activity generated at the airport, and many local companies do business with the airport and with the airlines and service companies operating at the airport.

One of the goals of the airport, as well as the Anchorage community, is the attraction of ancillary businesses that can benefit from the strong air cargo connections available at the airport. Commercial activities such as trans-shipment hubs, third-party logistics centers, integrated repair, and return operations, could potentially find a role at Anchorage. In other words, one way to help ensure that the cargo airlines continue to stop in Anchorage, even at such time when technological advances in aircraft design and performance no longer necessitate them to stop, will be the presence of business reasons for them to make the stop beyond fuel and crew changes.

Private sector business groups, like World Trade Center Anchorage and the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, are involved in such recruitment efforts, as is the State of Alaska’s Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development.

Also, of course, the growth of locally-originating cargo, from light manufacturing, for example, will provide ongoing motivation for the carriers to stop in Anchorage, as well. The types of manufactured goods that typically utilize air cargo are those that are low weight, high value, and time sensitive.

The Anchorage airport is a valuable transportation infrastructure asset that continues to pay dividends for Anchorage and the rest of the state. Its continued growth, and the growth of businesses that can leverage its capabilities, offers opportunities for economic diversification and in keeping Anchorage and Alaska important players in the world of global transportation.