Lambert International Airport / Memphis International Airport

Lambert International Airport in St. Louis is a massively underused facility.  It is so empty, it easily accomodated a film crew for George Clooney's recent film.

The airport has a pretty big footprint.

It was once the hub for TWA, but that's all over now.  A new runway was built for them, but they fell apart.  Lambert has been losing flights ever since.  There used to be some airforce fighters there.  They changed to B-2 Spirits, and then flew away to an airbase close to Kansas City.

What's happening at the airport?  There are fewer passenger flights and fewer military flights, so who is using the new runway?  It must be cargo, right?  That's what our civic leaders think. 

St. Louis has seen some interesting political developments around the future of its main airport.  As it is operating below its possible capacity, any new business that wants to move in could do so pretty cheaply.  A while back, we saw the two senators from Missouri rush off with the mayor of St. Louis City and the St. Louis County Executive to Washington DC to meet with Chinese officials about a new cargo hub at Lambert Airport. 
St. Louis is a natural point of distribution with good highway and rail access, rivers too.  We're the Wuhan of North America.  Money has been slowly pooling at all levels of government to push for this.  It looks possible.

It would certainly change the American freight map if China moved its goods by air rather than ships.

There is another airport very close to St. Louis with an incredible amount of logistic skill.  Why shouldn't China send its goods there? 

Look at what FedEx has made out of the Memphis International Airport,


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Memphis is a fascinating case study in urban development.  The city is small with a metro population about half the size of St. Louis'.  By specializing, it has managed to secure its position as the largest cargo hub in the world.  The airport has started to sprawl out and consume local subdivisions, not for runways and hotels like a traditional passenger hub, but for warehouses: vast empty buildings with low economic activity. 

Carol Coletta of CEOs for Cities is from Memphis but now lives in Chicago.  In a conversation on the Passenger vs. Cargo model, she said,

... a market where fares are typically high (regional hubs where competition is low) discourages the location of professional services, especially those who must travel. I have experienced this personally. While our organization is headquartered in Chicago (cheap market, lots of airline competition), we had an employee in Memphis. We didn't want to send her anywhere because it was enormously expensive (usually 3x our fares out of Chicago). I just traded Memphis for DC as an employee location. Guess what happened to my travel costs? They plunged. So runways for freight may be an economic advantage (although FedEx, while itself providing lots of good paying jobs, has spawned a lot of land-eating, low-pay warehouses in Memphis), I would like to have competitive airfares for highly paid knowledge economy workers.

so while having a cargo hub is great for attracting companies in the logistics industry, it isn't necessarily the best for the city overall.  A good passenger airport, like O'Hare that offers cheap fares around the world and good ground service by subway and Amtrak, is better for attracting businesses that need mobile workers. 
A cargo airport needs altogether different facilities like truck depots, warehouses, freight trains, and barges. 

Lambert Airport is trapped between three highways, and that's a pretty good boundary.  The residential neighborhoods there probably have a sense that they might one day be bought out.  Airport hotels, warehouses, and hangers take up a lot of room and we naturally hope the airport continues to grow.

I lived in Singapore for a time, and I grew to admire their geopolitical position. 

Just looking at a map, it is instantly clear why the British Empire ruled the seas.  They held Suez and Singapore.  Any traffic at all between the Indian and Pacific Oceans must pass through Singapore.  Historically when the monsoon winds blew one way, the Indians came.  When the winds blew another way, the Indians went home and the Chinese arrived.  The winds reversed, and the Chinese left as the Indians returned.  Singapore sat between as an entrepôt.  They used their warehouses to excellent effect.  Present day Singapore has nothing going for it but its geographic position and its skilled citizens.  Leveraging their position, they made themselves into an Asian Tiger.  Changi Airport hosts three local passenger airlines in addition to being the 10th busiest cargo hub in the world.  Somehow it manages to hold both distinctions.  There are fine hotels and massive warehouses.  Passengers can take the subway or the bus.  Cargo can hop to a container ship.

St. Louis should learn from what isn't so great about Memphis and what seems to work for Singapore.  Traffic must be two way--a cargo hub that sends the planes back empty doesn't work.  A metro airport that can't get citizens to and from the places they need to go also doesn't work.
I hope that St. Louis can strike a balance as well.

A cargo deal with China has interesting prospects.  Academically, UMSL is almost immediately adjacent to the Lambert Airport.  UMSL's transportation studies program seems like a natural partner.  Between UMSL and Wash U is a joint East Asian Studies center that seems destined to grow.  Webster has multiple foreign campuses in China.  Part of the drive for this Chinese Cargo Hub designation has been done through the auspices of Sister City Relations and institutions like the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  Everyone on the St. Louis side is banking on this yielding more than just freight.
An international business community between St. Louis and China would be beneficial to the passenger side of the airport.

I've lived abroad for some time, and I have flown in and out of the US through Chicago instead of my hometown for the reasons Carol mentioned.  If a good cargo deal generated enough good will to get a regular direct flight between St. Louis and an East Asian city, I would be grateful.