2020 was the year Chicago Rockford International Airport saw the single largest amount of cargo pass through.
Last year, 2.7 billion pounds of cargo transported to and travel through the facility. This is compared to 2.3 billion in 2019. Deputy Director of Operations and Planning Zach Oakley said it’s a sign of local economic growth.
“With UPS, Amazon, Emery, and basically all of our freight companies on the airport, as we expand and grow and you see the economy in general kind of still be a little stagnant throughout Winnebago County and throughout the region, these are companies that are continuing to hire, continue to expand.”
The largest source of cargo growth was in e-commerce, but Oakley says COVID-19 accounted for other types of shipments, such as vaccine and PPE deliveries. By contrast, passenger service went down by 30%.