Pennsylvania Airport Expanding to Handle More Amazon Planes

Mark Makela/Reuters

So many of those packages people insist on getting in two days have been ending up at Lehigh Valley International Airport, where airport officials are racing to build more space for Amazon.com cargo planes.

The Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority on April 25 agreed to begin what could be a more than $4 million project to build an additional cargo plane ramp at the airport before Amazon's Christmas rush hits in November.

The board agreed to hire engineers to begin designing a sixth cargo plane ramp roughly the size of a football field-and-a-half at LVIA, so that it can be built before Nov. 1.

"We're in growth mode now," said Ed Lozano, authority board member. "We're in big-dollar capital investment mode. We're going into uncharted territory on cargo."

In fact, the dollars are so big that some members experienced sticker shock over the $451,000 contract to engineering firms C&S Cos. and AECom, both of Philadelphia.

"That seems like a lot of money just for design work," said board member Ted Rosenberger. "I'm personally very uncomfortable spending $451,000 to design a ramp, when there haven't been any other bids."

Authority Executive Director Charles Everett Jr. explained that C&S has a five-year deal to serve as authority consultant, and AECom was the firm that designed the existing five-space cargo ramp area more than a decade ago. With Amazon goods going into the airport increasing quickly, there would have been no time to advertise for bids, or get Federal Aviation Administration approval to use another engineering firm in time to have the new ramp built by Nov. 1.

"Every few years we take bids for qualified engineering firms," Everett said. "We do that so we can move quickly like this."

Everett said the design work, to be done within 30 to 40 days, will determine the cost, but he said construction is not expected to exceed $4 million. That may seem pricey, he said, but the new ramp will have a concrete surface at least two feet thick and be large enough to give Amazon's 767 cargo jets room to maneuver with their 200-foot wing spans.

Amazon's arrival has already created 65 full-time jobs at the airport and has the potential to net the authority several million dollars a year.

FedEx has been flying two planes of consumer goods into LVIA daily for years, but Amazon began flying goods in 2015. Determined to cut delivery time, Amazon is building its own air cargo system, and LVIA is at the center of it. It's now one of 11 airports Amazon is flying its fleet of 40 cargo planes into nationwide.

And unlike FedEx, which uses its own employees to handle the flights and goods, Amazon is paying the authority to provide ground crews, package handling and maintenance services, on top of the landing fees and fuel purchases it makes at LVIA. What started as one Amazon flight a day is now five and that will almost certainly grow during the Christmas season.

FedEx ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

"We're expecting a minimum of six per day during the holidays, but it could be more," Everett said. "There were days last holiday season when we had as many as nine."

The problem is that the traffic has grown so fast, the airport is nearly out of space. Two of its five cargo slots are reserved for FedEx planes, and the three airlines that serve Amazon often fill the other three.

The ultimate fix is doubling the cargo ramps to 10 and building a $20 million warehouse on the airfield, but that is at least two years away.

The sixth ramp will get the airport through this year, while it makes plans for more expansion, and expense, later.

"Once this is done," Everett sad, "It will be easier to come back in and expand further later."