Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408190020
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Memphis, Tenn.-based corporation has delivered overnight mail to and from Roanoke for 10 years. However, it has hauled the mail 100 miles south to Greensboro, N.C., by truck each day and loaded it on Memphis-bound flights.
The new service, scheduled to begin Oct.3, will allow local customers to drop off packages later, said Armand Schneider, a Federal Express spokesman. It also means the delivery company may begin truck service to smaller local communities that it now does not serve.
"There are several big customers in Roanoke. There's enough volume there," he said.
A lease agreement with Federal Express was approved unanimously in concept by the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission on Wednesday. It allows the airport to enter into a lease with the $8.5 billion delivery company.
Federal Express will join four other overnight delivery carriers with operations at the airport: United Parcel Service; Emery Worldwide Air Cargo; Airborne Express; and Burlington Air Express, which began operations there Monday.
Schneider declined to specify the volume of business Federal Express does locally. He said it is up 25 percent, an increase he attributed to jumps in business of "a couple of large customers" he declined to identify.
Under terms of the agreement approved by the commission, Federal Express will lease 1,810 square feet of the old airport terminal building at $12 per square foot per year, for an annual total of $21,720.
The company also will rent 19,375 feet of the old parking lot, which it will fence in, for an additional $6,781.25 annually.
The lease is short-term because Federal Express intends to move into a new air cargo terminal the airport will open in 1996, said Mark Courtney, the airport's director of marketing.
Federal Express, which began operations in 1973, delivers 2 million packages each day around the world, Schneider said.
The company moves packages of all sizes on its fleet of 462 aircraft, which includes more than 200 jets. It has 65 employees and 46 trucks based on Peter's Creek Road, plus a spur office in Christiansburg with 15 employees and 15 delivery vehicles, Schneider said.
The company has no plans to expand its local work force, he added.
The opening of the service will bring a single Federal Express 727 jet to the airport six days a week, said Deborah Kruse, senior manager for Roanoke's Federal Express office.
The new service is an extension of the company's existing Memphis-to-Greensboro route now served by a 727 jet. Rather than staying in Greensboro as it does now, the jet will continue on to Roanoke, arriving at about 6:30 a.m. daily. It will depart Roanoke each night at 9, return to Greensboro and then fly on to Memphis, Federal Express' delivery hub.
"We're becoming the intermodal link - as opposed to the intermodal spoke - for Western Virginia," Courtney said.
The airport has seen dramatic growth in freight volume in recent years. Excluding the U.S. Postal Service, total air freight jumped from 20.4 million pounds in 1992 to 25.1 million pounds in 1993, an increase of 23 percent.
Total air freight for the first six months of 1994 was 13.7 million pounds, up from 11.1 million pounds in the first six months of 1993.
Courtney said the airport expects to hit 35 million pounds this year with the addition of Federal Express and Burlington.
by CNB