Nearby Illinois and Missouri airports vie to become China cargo hub

A TEST flight from Shanghai to MidAmerica St Louis Airport in Illinois across the Mississippi River 25 miles east of St Louis, Missouri, went well and the airport officials now hope regular flights will start by the end of the year, reports The Associated Press.

But this flies in the face of the ambitions of St Louis Lambert Airport on the Missouri side of the Mississippi, a delegation from which is now in Shanghai and Beijing making its pitch to play the same role MidAmerica airport seeks.

MidAmerica was named a US port of entry in 2006, and its officials say Lambert is too late.

The county-run airport lost US$5.3 million in 2008 and similar amounts in the two years before that. Its last passenger service ended two years ago, and officials have struggled to gain and retain cargo business at the a $7 million 50,000-square foot cargo terminal. MidAmerica has not posted a profit since it opened in 1998.

Some see promise in Boeing's recent announcement to use MidAmerica's cargo terminal as its defence contract manufacturing plant starting early next year. Apart from being encouraged by Illinois state funding - $2.3 million and $2 million in tax credits - Chicago-based Boeing also has facilities in the St Louis, Missouri, area where it makes the F/A-18, F-15 and C-17 aircraft.
(Source:www.schednet.com)