Quote:
Originally Posted by DePaul Bunyan
Illinois is not in a financial position to build a 3rd vanity airport, which has always been about enriching Springfield-connected construction firms and clout-heavy south side players. The airlines aren't asking for it, and that includes the cargo carriers, who are quite happy with MEM, CVG, and other regional airports with existing, underutilized infrastructure (CVG especially since DL barely has a presence there any more) and more accommodating, less burdensome regulatory and labor environments. They also have better weather, and cargo operations generate a fraction of the traffic and revenue that passenger carriers do. Cargo operators fly way less frequently than passenger jets (less runway/landing fees), don't have passengers (no revenue from ticketing fees and airport retail, parking, concessions, etc.), and don't require a huge presence in the terminal (no rent/lease revenue from operating gates, lounges, etc.). GYY and RFD are already Chicago's 3rd/4th airports.
EDIT: Additionally, RFD is already a major hub for UPS, and Amazon Air already utilizes the airport.
|
I feel like there are faster and easier ways to throw your buddies a few million dollars in construction contracts than spending 20+ years trying to build an airport....
Having worked with a couple of airports in Cali on nagging cargo contracts, I can sort of see where they're coming from. Rockford is a fine airport for bringing deliveries into the Chicagoland area, but it's on the opposite side of the city a lot of the of the intermodal yards and industrial land in the Southern Chicago/Gary IN area. With modern JIT manufacturing you want to schedule deliveries down to the hour or even the minute in some cases, driving 80+ miles isn't going to cut it . What you want is something within ~25-50 miles, which if done right can entourage all sorts of high tech, high value manufacturing to locate in the region.
Here in Cali it's a development plan that Ontario, San Bernadino, Victorville, San Diego (at Brown Field), and Sacramento (at Mather) have all followed. But there's two really big issues I see with Chicago trying to copy them.
First, we've had a spotty record with this in Cali. It's really worked well for Ontario, with UPS's western air hub driving it into one of the top cargo airports in the nation. San Bernadino has struggled for years but recently saw a major success in snagging Amazon's western air hub. Mather is a minor UPS hub for Northern CA and the Central Valley. Brown Field has a development plan in place that's been stalled for years, and Victorville has gone nowhere in that direction.
Second, and more importantly, California didn't pay to build any of these airports. I just want to emphasize this, literally every single one of airports I mentioned is a former military base. Back in the Cold War the USAF in particular built many heavy bomber bases in Cali to strike at the Soviet far east and China, often multiple in the same metro just in case one was nuked. With the Cold War over and all these former bases back in civilian hands, it's mostly been a process of figuring out what to do with them. For the life of me I don't get why Illinois wants so badly to replicate a desperate military town trying to pivot post-BRAC.
Further note on Gary's airport: it's a good location for exactly this sort of plan but the runway is a little short. Its the exact same issue we're facing at Brown in San Diego, which itself probably wouldn't pencil out if it weren't right across the border from Mexico to give the area access to that stupendously cheap labor market. There's also the access to the larger Tijuana airport, and the the Navy's preference for supporting manufacturing in San Diego (its primary west coast homeport) combined with its congressional mandate to locate its supply chain entirely within US borders. All that combines to make up for Brown having an 8,000' foot runway, when really what you need is ~10,000' feet to make for an effective cargo hub. Or maybe not, considering San Diego has been struggling to make this work for 15+ years...