Pittsburgh Becomes North American Hub for Freight Forwarder

The city of Pittsburgh was established on a strategic basis because of its location on the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which allowed the transportation of goods down the Ohio and eventually to the Mississippi. The roots of transportation grew deeper for the city when the rail lines followed as coal and steel production in the region boomed. This trend continued as over the road trucking hit its stride. Perhaps it should not be surprising that this trend is now continuing via international air freight,as Qatar Airwaves Cargo started offering its services to Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) in October 2017.

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After two years of successful freight services, a Sri Lanka based freight forwarder (Expo Freight) has announced that it will utilize Qatar Airwaves to make Pittsburgh International the base for its North American Cargo Distribution Center. A combination of a strategic location between major metro areas and significantly less congestion than other major airports made PIT a uniquely attractive option to Expo Freight(EFL). The service via Qatar Airwaves, which is a charter that travels from Doha, Qatar to Pittsburgh, offers EFL customers in Asia a solution for 72-hour transit time to distribution centers in the United States. Pittsburgh is also located between Chicago and New York, which allows for convenient access to two of the largest air cargo markets in the U.S.

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Twice a week, Qatar Airwaves brings a Boeing 777 freighter into the airport, which mean a weekly capacity of 200 tonnes. EFL has charters half of that to be able to fulfill the distribution needs for its customers, and it means an increase in economic development in the Pittsburgh region. EFL is the same Freight Forwarder that partnered with Emirates services to into Rickenbacker Airport in Columbus, Ohio. Shortly after that partnership, Trinity Logistics partnered with Ethiad Cargo to bring a line into Columbus as well, establishing Rickenbacker as a sort of fashion hub (since most of the imports were clothing). Whether Pittsburgh will see the same growth from additional airlines is yet to be seen, but certainly is not out of the question.