Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 7, 1993 TAG: 9312070078
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Mark Courtney, the airport's director of planning and market development, said Monday that construction is expected to begin in 1995 on a 120,000-square-foot air cargo loading ramp. The ramp, which will cost an estimated $3 million, will be able to accommodate three or four aircraft at a time.
Plans also call for a terminal shell building with room for offices, a pilots' room and restrooms. No estimate has been made of the cost of that building.
The Roanoke Airport Commission last month approved purchase of four acres near the northeast corner of the airport compound for the terminal.
That land, acquired from P&H Affiliated Partnership for $450,000, will be added to three acres already owned by the airport to provide a 7-acre site for the new air cargo facility.
The property was purchased with a 90 percent grant from the Federal Aviation Administration, a 5 percent grant from the Virginia Department of Aviation and 5 percent in local funds. The same funding mix will be used to build the loading ramp, Courtney said.
Air freight is currently handled at various locations around the airport.
There has been an "explosive" growth in air freight nationwide, Courtney said, and Roanoke has not escaped that growth.
During October, 2.67 million pounds of freight were handled at the airport, compared with 2.07 million pounds in October 1992, an increase of 28.7 percent. For the first 10 months of 1993, the most recent statistic available, air cargo moving through the airport was up 21.2 percent from a year earlier.
United Parcel Service, which operates a regional package-sorting hub near the airport, provides 48 percent, or the largest single share, of the airport's air freight business.
Emery Worldwide accounts for another 37.6 percent. Emery began increasing its share when it consolidated its regional distribution network at the airport a year ago, Courtney said.
Airborne Express accounts for 8.4 percent of the freight business at the airport, with freight carried in the holds of regular passenger flights. Some smaller freight carriers account for the rest.
In addition to construction work, some permanent jobs will be created by the development of the freight terminal, but it is uncertain how many, Courtney said.
by CNB