Alaska partnership to promote air cargo

A new Alaskan business partnership has been formed to promote the airfreight cluster around the US state’s Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC).
Alaska AeroNexus brings together the Alaska International Airport System, the Municipality of Anchorage and Anchorage Economic Development Corp (AEDC).
It aims to “increase economic opportunity, growth and diversification in the state through enhanced coordination efforts in aviation and air cargo-based industries” around the world’s fifth largest air cargo hub second largest US airport for air cargo commerce and international trade between the US and Asia.
ANC handled 2.4m tonnes of cargo in 2014 and is located less than 9.5 hours flying time from 90% of key global markets. Integrators FedEx and UPS have transpacific sort facilities at the airport, with cargo a key airport revenue earner, representing 80% of the business at ANC, according to the airport authority.
The new alliance will provide a partnership for the three organisations to plan and coordinate common action, leverage resources and aggressively pursue economic opportunities and investments from instate, national and international business interests.
Bill Popp, AEDC president and chief executive, said: “The Alaska AeroNexus Alliance partners share numerous economic and workforce goals that are vital to the future economic growth and diversification of Anchorage and Alaska.
“Unifying our efforts and establishing the Ted Stevens International Airport, part of the Alaska International Airport System, as a fully realised AeroNexus will result in significant new business investments. We are optimistic about the opportunities the new partnership will bring to the state.”
The alliance said that it will “add efficiency to global air cargo supply chains through saving time and money for shippers, third-party logistics providers and manufacturers; increasing the reliability of air cargo; and decreasing risk associated with longer distances and shipping times”.
Alaska AeroNexus’ agenda for action includes identifying strategic investment opportunities and needs, such as infrastructure investments and workforce training, and gathering  “the necessary resources to fully develop these opportunities into realized investments in ANC and Anchorage”.