"Texas firm will help Stewart Airport become cargo alternative"

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Texas firm will help Stewart Airport become cargo alternative
The Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record


STEWART AIRPORT -- A national cargo company has inked a deal to build a new
cargo facility at Stewart Airport.

Now it just needs to find some tenants.

The Lynxs Group, an Austin, Texas-based cargo development company, has
agreed to build a cargo port at Stewart, which could double the airport's
warehouse space.

Construction will begin once the airport and Lynxs sign an anchor tenant.
There's no telling when that will be, but airport officials are courting
potential suitors.

"(Lynxs) said they'll start construction once we've got 35,000 square feet
lined up. That's what we're shooting for," said Stewart CEO Chuck Seliga.
"Once that happens, the snowball will roll."

Stewart's powers-that-be have long pegged the airport as a big cargo spot.
But actually developing that capability has been tough.

Air cargo suffered after Sept. 11, and industry analysts say it's closely
tied to the health of the wider economy. But nowadays, cargo is a
fast-growing piece of aviation, said Ray Brimble, chairman of Lynxs.

That means the New York City airports are reaching capacity again, creating
an opportunity for growth at Stewart, he said.

Airport officials market Stewart as a cargo alternative to the city
airports, especially for shipments to Westchester and northern New Jersey.

Assets, they say, include cheap landing fees, a long runway capable of
handling big planes and relatively easy access to two interstate highways.

"Driving from Stewart back to the city is not that big a deal," Brimble
said. "With traffic, it's not that much different timewise than driving in
from JFK."

When the facility's built, it could be anywhere from 60,000 to 90,000 square
feet, depending on demand. It'll be on the north side of the runway, with
access to Route 17K.

It will basically be an unloading facility, Brimble said, where cargo is
switched from planes to trucks, and vice versa.

But it could be a big step for Stewart, especially if cargo grows, as some
are expecting. A recent forecast by Boeing predicted the world's air cargo
traffic will triple over the next two decades, and the number of air
freighters will double, to about 3,500.

"You've got to have somewhere to put these," Brimble said. "And sooner or
later, Stewart is going to be utilized."


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