"Air cargo resumes Ontario, Calif., flights"

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Air cargo resumes Ontario, Calif., flights
The Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise


Cargo carrier BAX Global returned to Ontario International Airport this
week, three years after cutting flights to the Inland Empire in the
midst of a soured economy.

The Irvine-based carrier was the fifth-largest air cargo company at the
airport when it eliminated flights to Ontario in 2001. Since then,
Ontario International has grown to the 15th-busiest cargo airport in the
country. 

Brian Fitzpatrick, vice president of BAX Global's Western Division, said
he had expected to see the carrier return to Ontario International even
as it cut off its flights in 2001. 

"We've always had a very strong marketplace in Ontario," Fitzpatrick
said. "We've known the economy has been picking up the demand for air
cargo there."

The company, which specializes in business-to-business shipping, never
closed its Ontario offices. However, for three years BAX Global has been
trucking freight to its planes at LAX.

Ontario International Airport will be part of a daily round-trip route
connecting San Diego with BAX Global's central hub in Toledo, Ohio. 

For BAX Global, the addition will allow it to shave about two hours from
its delivery times for packages starting and ending in Ontario,
Fitzpatrick said. 

Over the past three years, cargo volume at Ontario International Airport
has grown nearly 30 percent, far outpacing passenger growth, which is
just returning to 2000 levels. Through the first six months of the year,
the airport has topped 300,000 tons and is on pace to surpass the
600,000-ton mark. In 2001, the airport handled 462,782 tons of cargo and
mail.

Mark Thorpe, director of air service marketing for Los Angeles World
Airports, said the agency is preparing to debut a cargo-centered
marketing campaign to help grow freight volume at the airport. The
effort will be similar to a passenger-focused campaign earlier this
year.

LAX can add only a modest mount of cargo capacity. As a result, LAWA
wants to promote growth at Ontario. 

"We have capacity at LAX for 2 million tons," Thorpe said. "We're now
just over 2 million." 

LAWA, an agency of the city of Los Angeles, owns and operates LAX,
Ontario International and two regional airports in Palmdale and Van
Nuys.


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