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This study develops a method for categorizing airports based on the amount of cargo each airport handles in relation to its passenger traffic. Such a categorization allows for systematic comparisons of airports largely specializing in cargo with those that have more balanced freight/passenger roles. The results show that cargo-focused hub airports (i.e., major cargo-handling airports that handle little or no passenger traffic) in the continental United States shoulder a growing burden in freight movement. One of the most successful of these, Chicago Rockford International Airport, has risen to become the 15th largest airport with respect to domestic cargo shipments on the US mainland, while Texas's Fort Worth Alliance Airport and Seattle's Boeing Field also rank among the top 50. A considerable amount of volatility, however, has accompanied the evolution of this specialized grouping of airports over the past 20 years. Presently, among the 100 airports on the U.S. mainland handling the most domestic freight, cargo-focused hub airports serve only a secondary role, handling less than 5% of domestic air freight shipments as measured by weight. Most major hubs operated by air-freight integrators, such as those developed by FedEx and UPS at Memphis, TN, and Louisville, KY, respectively, are at mixed-purpose airports that have a greater balance of passenger and freight activity. The findings point to some of the unique challenges facing airports that specialize in the movement of freight.

Air freight transportation is an increasingly important element in the production supply chains of both developed and less-developed countries. This chapter looks at the particular features of air freight transportation that pertain to the developing world. In doing this, it is borne in mind that much of the trade involves international interactions with developed countries and this affects the technology and costs involved. The markets for the transportation of flower products is given particular attention.

The continued rise in e-commerce has contributed to recent growth of the air cargo industry. In addition, international demand for low volume-high value products as well as time-sensitive goods continues to enhance demand for air cargo services. This volume consists of 11 chapters exploring whether this transportation sector has positioned itself to successfully take advantage of the economic opportunities associated with changing global demand for goods and demand for timely transportation services. Areas of analysis cover costs and competitiveness, shipper services and air cargo demand, along with international competition and economic development. Employing various empirical techniques and theoretical perspectives, these chapters help the reader to understand the methods by which air cargo companies provide efficient and increasingly affordable services, and also how the use of these services enhances economic growth and development.

This study aims to provide a meaningful comparison of airports’ performance and better understand the differences observed in the analysed airport performance by presenting a model to analyse the relationship between operational and financial performance and airport characteristics.

This study uses a quantitative analysis approach. The Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and entropy weight were utilised to analyse 17 airports in three Airports Council International regions: Asia, Europe and North America. Through operational and financial factors, these sample airports identified the most efficiently operated airports from 2016 to 2019.

Overall, Asian airports were superior in operational and financial efficiency. Unlike operating performance, the sample airport’s financial and total performance results show a similar trend. There were no noticeable changes in operational factors. Therefore, differences in financial variables for each airport may affect the total performance.

This study provides insightful implications for airport policymakers to establish a standardised information disclosure foundation for consistent analysis and encourage airports to provide this information.

The adoption of Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) to debt ratio and EBITDA per passenger, which had previously been underutilised in the previous study as financial factors, demonstrated differences between airports for airport stakeholders. In addition, the study presented a model that facilitates producing more intuitive results using TOPSIS, which was relatively underutilised compared to other methodologies such as date envelopment analysis.

This chapter investigates productivity and cost patterns in the all-cargo US air transport sector. We empirically test the productivity growth influence of changes in unexplained technology, air operations movement characteristics, and factor input prices. Findings show productivity trends depicting negative growth for the 1993–2001 sample, then shifting measurably such that productivity trends depict positive growth for the 2002–2014 sample. The post 2001 growth was fueled by changes in unexplained technological advancements. We interpret this finding as an indication of the importance of technological innovation as a performance enhancer in this transport sector. Findings also reveal a lack of productivity change associated with changes in input prices and movement characteristics. We interpret input price findings as indicating increases in factor input prices such as wages and fuel prices are commensurate with enhanced labor and fuel productivity. The movement characteristic findings are attributable to a lack of sustained increases in load factors, stage length, network size and carrying more volume over the network (density).

Assessing air cargo strategy from an airport's perspective is relatively novel, and it seems little attention has been paid to this research area. This chapter will address this research gap by introducing an Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas, designed to help build cargo strategies for individual airports.

The Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas can be used as a tool to analyze and improve the air cargo strategy of an airport. The first part of this chapter will explain the different components of the Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas more in detail. The horizontal axis on the canvas differentiates between exogenous and endogenous drivers of airport competitiveness. The vertical axis distinguishes between the airport product and the airport market. The canvas also considers potential disruptors and principal shareholders' objectives. The different components of the canvas allow the analyst to dig into the main features and differentiators of respective airports. The canvas might also be helpful to structure and compare the strategic components and framework of their own or competitors' cargo strategies.

In the second part, the Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas was applied to Brussels Airport to analyze its cargo strategy. The canvas showed several strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats in its current cargo strategy. The completed canvas will let Brussels Airport's executives explore and analyze the strategy of their main competitors and peers' strategy and help them identify potential gaps in their strategies.

The use of air cargo by low-income countries and the effects of freight charges on their export flows are described. This is accomplished by illustrating the difference between export flows from developing countries of perishable products and high-tech goods. Descriptive statistics are used to highlight the importance of trade that travels by air from these countries to the United States and the European Union. Subsequently, costs of air freight are estimated. A gravity model of trade measures the effect of these costs on export flows. Major institutional and regulatory constraints that may be halting additional trade that relies on air transportation, and the implications for economic growth, are identified.