The goal of airport system planning is to promote the efficient use of airport resources in a defined geographic area.  This is accomplished through a thorough examination of the performance and interaction of the entire system to understand the interrelationships of the member airports.  Developing airports within a framework of a system and understanding of a region’s user requirements, socioeconomics, and surface transportation network, may result in a more efficient system.  While there has been a long-standing tradition of airport system planning focused on passenger and aircraft activity, airport air cargo system planning has been much less common.  Air cargo facilities and activity often occur off airport; there are also airport-to-airport cargo movements undertaken entirely by trucks (and it is often common for some airports to have more truck-to-truck air cargo activity than aircraft air cargo activity).  These unique characteristics of aircraft activity, coupled with a lack of reliable data on the types of air cargo movements as well as the cargo’s origins and destinations, make airport air cargo system planning challenging.

The objective of this research is to develop a guide to help airport practitioners prepare airport air cargo system plans at both the regional and state levels.