RFD drops one spot in cargo rankings

August 5th, 2009 at 04:23pm Thomas V. Bona

Not a surprise here. With high fuel prices and the start of the recession in 2008, Chicago Rockford International Airport saw a 4 percent drop in cargo volume. That sent it down one spot to 19th in the nation, according to preliminary rankings released by the Federal Aviation Administration last month. RFD was passed by Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

It wasn’t a good year for cargo airports. More than half of the 121 cargo airports listed saw drops bigger than Rockford’s. Only 31 increased, and only three airports bigger than Rockford’s increased.

Here are the biggest winners and losers from 2008:

Up

1. Stockton, Calif +190.06 percent (but to be fair, it is the smallest airport on the list)
2. Knoxville, TN +28.5 percent
3. Grand Rapids. Mich. +10.8 percent
4. Harlingen, Texas +9.38 percent
5. Portsmouth, NH +9.36 percent
6. Seattle-Tacoma +8.03 percent
7. Cedar Rapids, Iowa +7.77 percent
8. Lubbock, Texas +7.39 percent
9. Reno, Nev. +6.96 percent
10. Cincinnati +6.81 percent

Down

1. Jackson, Miss. -73.64 percent
2. Fort Wayne, Ind. -63.91 percent
3. Detroit-Willow Run -51.45 percent
4. Agana, Guam -36.90 percent
5. Lihue, Hawaii -33.73 percent
6. Baton Rouge, La. -31.52 percent
7. San Francisco -30.36 percent
8. Kahului, Hawaii -28.89 percent
9. Brownsviille, Texas -25.16 percent
10. Charlotte, NC -23.51 percent

Nice that Cincy, with its big drop in passenger numbers, saw an increase in cargo. I’m sure that’ll ease the pain.

Finally, here are Illinois’ three cargo airports, ranked in pounds of landed weight:

1. Chicago O’Hare  3,668,314,900   -16.66 percent
2. Rockford    1,415,944,932    -3.98 percent
3. Peoria        179,182,550    -13.31 percent

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