MidAmerica airport pursues fading China air hub dream

MIDAMERICA St Louis Airport's pursuit of a China-based international air cargo hub role will not end with arrival of the Boeing assembly plant on site that will employ 75 people next year.

In preparation of regular cargo flights landing at the US$313 million airport, two loaded air freighters from China have arrived at MidAmerica, reports the local Belleville Illinois News Democrat.

Although no more flights from China are scheduled, Unigroup Worldwide customs brokers, have opened a two-man office at the terminal in hope that trade will come.

Hopeful Unigroup site manager Rolf Munk noted that St Louis was known as the Gateway to the West. "It's time to turn St Louis back into that gateway again, and air cargo gives an excellent opportunity," he said, adding that his company will be selling the idea to major air carriers that it's no longer necessary to use Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

"We can get into St Louis and do our distribution out there and do it faster," he said, free from congestion and complaints of noise pollution.

Plans are still afoot for the construction of a warehouse "that will be built by others at MidAmerica Airport," said Mark Kern, the St Clair County Board chairman, whose facility is across the Mississippi River in Illinois across from the metropolis of St Louis, Missouri.
(Source:www.schednet.com)