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Issue: 1111 Date: 12/8/2011
Become A Fan, Like St. Louis Chinese American News
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Lambert Airport Looks Beyond China to Develop Cargo Hub
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| Lambert Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge |
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ST. LOUIS-(KMOX)-After a two-year courtship with no ring, Lambert Airport is still waiting on China, but willing to date other suitors from the international cargo world - including South America.
"Well, obviously we would love to have them (China), because they are the largest trading partner in the world," said Lambert Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, "But I do think we can start focusing on other parts, especially into the Latin and South America area."
For five weeks straight, China has failed to keep its Monday date to land a cargo plane at Lambert. For all the negotiations, steak dinners and studies, Chinese cargo planes have arrived at Lambert only twice.
The cancelled dates began after the Missouri Legislature failed to pass an incentive package this summer for the China Hub. But Hamm-Niebruegge says a larger trend is also at work - China is exporting fewer goods to the U.S. in recent weeks.
"The verbage that we got from China Cargo was that due to the lack of inbound load not being strong enough, that they were canceling the flight," she said., "It certainly doesn't mean that we're giving up on China. It means that we're going to start working heavier on some other activity."
Meanwhile, Lambert is concerned about storm clouds on the horizon for passenger aviation.
"There are a lot of analysts saying that for the first quarter, a lot of the airlines are going to see a recession in terms of the seats offered, and in terms of passenger traffic that's going to be flying the first quarter. But we certainly haven't started seeing that yet out at Lambert," she said.
Hamm-Niebruegge reports Lambert has had a good year for passenger flights and a "very strong" Thanksgiving. And, she says, rumored consolidations in the industry are not expected to hit Lambert, because those airlines don't have overlapping schedules here.
Commenting on the possibility of a European currency crisis, Hamm-Niebruegge says Lambert currently serves some 250 passengers a day to Europe and there could be an impact here.
"The majority of it right now is business (travel). It's not necessarily leisure (travel). So, you think that that would be impacted negatively, if something happens in Europe that causes the businesses not to send as many people to and from," she said.
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