Anchorage is a small city with a fairly big airport and big dreams for it—and it’s on the verge of seeing some of those dreams come true with government approval for it to serve as a transfer point between foreign airlines.
Ted Stevens International Airport is already the #2 air freight hub in the U.S., after only Memphis, which is the main hub for FedEx’s huge fleet. Anchorage’s main business, in fact, is freight-only planes transiting between Asia and the U.S., but in recent months a shortage of cargo capacity has seen airlines flying passenger planes with only the cargo holds filled.
With the new authority, those flights will now be able to carry passengers, and the airport will be a point where they can switch. A Singapore Airlines passenger, say, headed for Europe might switch at Anchorage for another airline’s flight to a different part of Europe or the Americas. Routing passenger flights with a stop for refueling could also allow more cargo, since many super-distance flights are weight-limited by the need for extra fuel.
In a way, it would be ‘back to the future’ for the airport; before the advent of jets with longer flight capabilities, Anchorage served as a midpoint for many flights from Europe to Asia and the Pacific.
