Three airports operated by the Port of New York and New Jersey expect to record a 2 per cent increase in air-cargo throughput this year, an executive says.
Director of Aviation Robert Kelly said the airports - John F. Kennedy International, Newark International and LaGuardia - handled 2.8 million tonnes of cargo last year.
'The cargo was mostly of high value and time-sensitive from Asia and had a value of more than US$150 billion,' he said during a visit to Hong Kong.
Last year, Tokyo handled 2.4 million tonnes of cargo, Memphis handled 2.2 million tonnes and Los Angeles handled 1.9 million tonnes, while Hong Kong and Miami each handled 1.8 million tonnes.
While Asia's exports to the US were strong, imports to Asia from the US were weak, Mr Kelly said.
Looking at the traffic from the US to Asia, Korean Air and Japan Airlines had expressed concern that they might not meet targets this year, Mr Kelly said.
Asked about developments on the cargo side at the airports, Mr Kelly said Japan's Nippon Cargo Airlines and Taiwan's Air China were moving into new buildings and making improvements to ramp handling to make them accessible to Boeing 747s. This also would assist them to be more cost-effective.
