Project promotes airport as cargo hub
Operation aims to draw international business
Art Thomason
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 4, 2007
A plan to turn Mesa-based Williams Gateway Airport into an international cargo hub capable of producing millions of dollars in revenue and creating hundreds of jobs soon will be unveiled by a group of business and government leaders.
For years, Arizona business executives and public officials have envied Los Angeles International Airport's lucrative position as one of the world's busiest cargo destinations.
Now, Williams Gateway, which will become Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on Oct. 15, is being positioned as a potential international player for the same types of direct-air freight deliveries to and from international markets.
The project is called Arizona Direct and has been developed by Valley business, government and public entities to equip and market the airport as a world-class cargo hub. To enhance creation of the airport's international import-export status, the project also seeks to provide direct rail access and establish regional truck service, aerospace research and development and manufacturing.
Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, said the operation should have tremendous appeal to manufacturers in southwestern states east of California, and their international suppliers.
John Barry, Williams Gateway's director of marketing and development, said users could cut costs by as much as 54 percent, save fuel and lower carbon emissions by moving international freight through Williams Gateway and its duty-free Foreign Trade Zone instead of hauling it to and from California's airports and seaports.
Mark Dobbins, board member of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "Do you realize that one more hour in the air, and all that cargo that flies into LAX can be forwarded here and land at the soon-to-be Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and could take off from the same airport?"
The project is planned to evolve in steps as it is marketed to the domestic and international manufacturing industry, cargo service airlines and trucking companies and Union Pacific Railroad.
Dobbins, who is chairman of a committee that designed Arizona Direct, named it and will begin marketing it Oct. 17, is among the Arizona business executives who have a substantial interest. Dobbins is senior vice president of human resources and general affairs for Sumco USA, the Phoenix-based subsidiary of Sumco Corp. of Tokyo, the world's second-largest supplier of silicon wafers. "We currently ship to California, primarily San Francisco, and our operations are in Arizona, Albuquerque and Cincinnati, with the exception of a sales office in San Jose, California," he said. "For us to move our chain of projects both in and out of the United States, we're dealing with a remote site. How much cheaper and more business-effective it would be to have it in Arizona."
Dobbins said lower transportation costs also could woo companies such as Intel, Honeywell and Boeing. Arizona Direct has been in planning for almost two years with input from more than 20 business professionals, entrepreneurs, trade groups and economic-development organizations. The project's key participants include Arizona State University Polytechnic, whose campus is at the airport; Mesa; the airport's five-member governing authority; and Paragon Properties, a Carefree-based partnership that plans to build a trade center on more than 900 acres south of the airport.
Lynn Kusy, Williams Gateway's executive director, said plans are to launch the project with about $100,000 in startup costs. Additional businesses and groups are expected to come aboard as stakeholders as the project unfolds, he said.
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