WILMINGTON — The Wilmington Air Park was ranked the highest volume airport in Ohio for cargo shipped for 12 consecutive months ended July 2020. That volume also makes it the 33rd busiest airport in the United States based on pounds of freight transiting the airport.
“This ranking speaks volumes about the team that keeps this airport running today, and for the past several years,” said Clinton County Port Authority Executive Director Daniel Evers. The Port Authority owns and operates the Wilmington Air Park. It contracts with LGSTX Services, Inc. to manage daily – and nightly – operations at the airport.
Based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the Wilmington Air Park ranks 33rd in the United States out of 780 airports, processing 346 million pounds of freight through the airport in the 12 months ending July 2020.
This is the second time in the past decade that the airport has achieved this ranking in Ohio. From August 2016 through September 2017, the Wilmington Air Park also outpaced all other Ohio airports in the volume of cargo shipped through the airport.
“This report accumulates the total amount of cargo through an airport in a rolling 12-month period,” Evers added. “Cargo operations resumed at the airport in July of 2019 and by February – only eight months later – it was once again the top airport in the state, and 53rd in the nation.”
Well positioned for freight and cargo operations, the airport has long been a logistics center. In the early 1980s it was home to fledgling Airborne Express that later grew to be the third largest overnight delivery company in the nation.
The Port Authority has owned the Wilmington Air Park for just over 10 years. More than $5 million has been invested in aviation infrastructure at the Wilmington Air Park over the past five years, including grant funds from the Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation, a capital grant from the State of Ohio, and general fund dollars from the Clinton County Port Authority.
“The dedication of the LGSTX team, together with the depth of their knowledge of the airport, has allowed the Port Authority to invest and leverage our available funds strategically to create an environment that will enable continued growth of aircraft operations at the airport,” said Evers. “We continue to attract the attention of cargo operators, due to the location of the Air Park, flexibility in our ability to accommodate users’ needs, and the efficiencies of operating at cargo-only airport.”
Bureau of Transportation statistics are updated monthly and published on their website at https://bit.ly/ILN_Stats .
