Identify Your Air Cargo Market Area and Competing Airports

Airports with air cargo operations that are considering expansion and airports without air cargo operations that are considering initial service should be aware that the increase in activity will require an investment in time and resources from the airport. This will include an initial exploration into your air cargo catchment area and a look at competing airports in the region to help evaluate your airport’s position in the market. Understanding the catchment area of your airport is critical for marketing and forecasting efforts, as well as identifying what cargo in the catchment areas might be driven to other airports in the region due to better air cargo facilities or more flight frequencies offered at those airports.

A market or catchment area is the area and population from which a facility or region attracts business. The air service catchment area is determined by the level and type of air services offered at an airport relative to competing airports and can be influenced by elements such as ease of access from the connecting road networks. An air cargo market area is often much larger than an air passenger market area. An air cargo airport catchment area is defined by a number of variables involved in air cargo shipments including:

• the ultimate origins and destinations of shipments
• the geographical location of airports
• the types of freight being shipped
• the levels of available air services at the airports

Catchment areas may also change seasonally due to air cargo lift capacity since seasonal temperatures can impact allowable take-off weights of aircraft.

A catchment area for shipments (domestic and international) relevant to an airport can be based on an analyses of available air cargo data as well as input from air cargo stakeholders such as air carriers and freight forwarders. Interviews with local companies that use other logistics options can provide key information as to the airport’s catchment area for air cargo.

The presence of an established air cargo operation at a gateway airport in your region also impacts your catchment area – challenging the opportunity for air cargo development at your airport. For example, the Phoenix Regional Air Cargo Planning Study noted that in the western U.S., the presence of LAX and its robust logistics services can be an impediment to attracting regularly scheduled freighter services at San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix and other regional airports. LAX offers a mix of widebody passenger services that complement scheduled all-cargo freighter services creating an optimal mix of capacity and schedules for a wide variety of air cargo users. The service model, which has developed over many decades at LAX, is highly dependent on a very large local passenger market and the business models of airlines.