New Oklahoma airfreight hub set to “reduce shipments’ time to market”

A new airfreight industrial park being established in Ardmore, Oklahoma, is expected to “reduce shipments’ time to market and ease congestion”.

The Global Transportation and Industrial Park of Oklahoma (GTIP) is located on the site of a former US Army Air Force base less than 100 miles north of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and less than 100 miles south of Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.

It is comprised of a fully functional airport with 9,002 ft and 5,404 ft runways, airspace access and 1.2m sq ft of aircraft parking space.

Currently, the existing infrastructure can handle “the vast majority of preighters and freighters”, but future plans will increase the hub’s capacity to enable it to handle Boeing 747 freighter flights. 

Representatives of GTIP said that with access to air, rail, and five major highways, the site’s availability and adaptability “will improve cargo’s time to market”.

“About 85% of the US population is within reach of GTIP by onward trucking capacity for perishables coming from South America, e-commerce coming from Europe or Asia, and any other type of air cargo,” said GTIP representatives in a statement.

“An approved US Foreign Trade Zone, the facility offers on-site U.S. Customs, Federal Aviation Administration staffing, and cargo operations with no curfews or operational restrictions.”

They added that they are already in discussions with airlines, freight forwarders, integrators and beneficial cargo owners about the air cargo solutions that will be located at the site.

Michelle Bowling, senior director of sales for Watco, a partner in developing and operating GTIP, commented: “GTIP represents an extraordinary opportunity for the air cargo community to create capacity by utilising an existing airport that can accept air cargo today.”

“E-commerce-related cargo drove significant growth in the air cargo industry during the pandemic, and we expect that growth to continue steadily. To meet increasing demand, freight deserves dedicated, specialised cargo airports, but too few are available. GTIP helps fill that need, offering both existing infrastructure and space to build out customized warehousing, manufacturing, and distribution centers to meet a fully integrated supply chain need.”

Steven Verhasselt, vice president of commercial at Liege Airport, and director of FB Cargo Strategy, added: “The air freight industry is challenged by a combination of change and growth on an unprecedented level.

“GTIP represents a quick and intelligent solution for the capacity crunch in the air cargo supply chain in the United States. Developing a greenfield multimodal logistics platform adapted to the new requirements on a fully functional airfield is a perfect answer as it can develop quickly and still be adaptable to current and future requirements. As a dedicated cargo platform it will focus on quality service and guaranteed reliable and flexible minimum time to market.”