Anchorage international airport jumps into first for cargo volume in the US

The Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport has reached new heights, becoming the largest cargo hub in the U.S. last year.

It may be a first for the Anchorage airport, based on historical data from the Airports Council International.

The ascendance is based partly on the airport’s steady growth in cargo volume landed there in recent years, according to figures from the group.

It came even as President Donald Trump’s tariffs upended global trade patterns, the group’s latest rankings show.

A key part of the rise? The state’s strategic perch near much of the industrialized world.

But perhaps more important in the latest figures was the large decline in cargo volume at the Memphis International Airport last year.

The FedEx superhub has long been the dominant cargo airport in the U.S., and sometimes the world. But FedEx has restructured its operations, contributing to the airport’s drop in cargo volume.

That helped the Anchorage airport leapfrog past Memphis last year.

With 3.9 million tons of cargo landed, Anchorage was behind only the Hong Kong and Shanghai airports, globally.

In recent years in particular, the Anchorage airport has become a critical crossroads for aviation shippers, in part due to the increase in e-commerce packages moving between Asia and the U.S.

Carriers often drop into Anchorage to refuel, allowing them to haul more of their valuable payload, and less fuel traveling between continents.

“Aircraft can reach 90% of the industrialized world within 9 1/2 hours from the airport,” said Teri Lindseth, the airport’s development manager, in an interview Friday.

Also important is the “targeted effort by the airport development team and the (Alaska) Department of Transportation to expand Anchorage’s cargo presence and overall airport development,” she said. “We’ve focused on supporting our existing partners at the airlines, creating opportunities for growth, and we’re seeing that strategy pay off.”

Over 30 cargo carriers using the airport have helped boost those numbers, Lindseth said.

Some of the carriers have significantly increased their cargo landings in Anchorage last year, she said, including China Airlines and Taiwan-based EVA Air Cargo, and Kalitta Air and Atlas Air, based in the U.S., she said.

Greg Wolf, head of the Alaska International Business Center, said that the airport has done a good job marketing the benefits of the Alaska route to cargo carriers.

The extra cargo each jet can carry as it lands in Anchorage helps give extra oomph to the numbers, compared to other airports, he said.

The Anchorage airport’s rise to first place came as Alaska reached its highest-ever volume in foreign exports, at $6.7 billion, Wolf said.

Some of that product moved by air, adding to the airport’s cargo numbers, he said.

And while Trump has slapped extra-high tariffs on China, Alaska exports still traveled there, apparently after first reaching other Asian countries with lower tariffs before making their way to China, Wolf said.

Alaska’s export value to China fell to fourth last year — behind Korea, Australia and Japan — though it’s typically been the state’s top export partner.

“I’ve talked to businesses, not just from Alaska, but other American businesses, and they’ve done their best to work around the tariffs,” he said.