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MidAmerica St. Louis Airport plans to add a second cargo flight from South America by the end of the year, Director Tim Cantwell said Wednesday.

A year ago this month, the St. Clair County airport welcomed its first intercontinental air cargo flight with the arrivals of tons of fresh flowers from Bogotá, Colombia, through Miami-based Teqflor International Logistics.

MidAmerica has been focusing on building cargo traffic after it lost the last of its passenger flights in January, when Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air canceled its semiweekly service to Las Vegas after ending another route to Florida in September 2008.

Now, in an effort to build traffic and revenue, MidAmerica plans to add a second weekly flight of fresh flowers by the end of the year, Cantwell said Wednesday.

He said he wants to eventually add shipments of other products, including vegetables and fish.

A test flight of four tons of asparagus, for example, took place at the Mascoutah, Ill., airport in June.

Cantwell acknowledges that it takes a long time to build a market for international freight flights. The 11-year-old airport has not turned a profit and would need to welcome two 747 jets a day to break even, he said.

The airport reported an operating loss of $5.3 million in 2008, larger than the $5.2 million loss in 2007 and the $5.1 million loss in 2006, but smaller than the $5.9 million loss in 2005 and the $5.8 million losses in 2004 and 2003, according to a recent county audit, said county board Chairman Mark Kern. To offset losses, the airport recently laid off three employees and now has a total of 12, he said.

The red ink and county subsidies to keep the airport afloat prompted St. Clair County board member Craig Hubbard to call MidAmerica a “money pit.”

But airport officials and other county representatives attribute billions more in economic activity to the airport for its support of flights and training for nearby Scott Air Force Base.

St. Clair almost lost Scott Air Force Base during a base realignment in 1995 but was able to keep it — and its $2.5 billion annual economic impact and 14,000 jobs — with MidAmerica’s control tower and runway, Kern said.

“A huge chunk of our economy is from Scott Air Force Base,” he said. “We’ve been able to weather the recession better than other regions because of it.”

Source: St. Louis Business JournalTags: e-floralink, Fresh Cut Flowers. Flower Industry, Floral Industry, Floral Logistics, Flower Logistics, Flower Growers, Flower Exports, Flower Imports, Flower Market, Flower Wholesale, Floricultores, Traceability, Trazabilidad

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