{"id":6012,"date":"2026-09-15T13:51:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T10:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/rockford-targets-ohare-cargo-with-liege-inspired-freighter-strategy\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T13:51:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T10:51:58","slug":"rockford-targets-ohare-cargo-with-liege-inspired-freighter-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/rockford-targets-ohare-cargo-with-liege-inspired-freighter-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockford targets O\u2019Hare cargo with Li\u00e8ge-inspired freighter strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DCIM100MEDIADJI_0024.JPG\"\n

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0024.JPG<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chicago Rockford International Airport is looking to replicate the success of Li\u00e8ge Airport as it seeks to establish itself as a major alternative cargo gateway to Chicago O\u2019Hare, according to Rene Espinet, vice-president of cargo business development at Rockford.<\/p>\n

Mr Espinet told The Loadstar<\/em> on the sidelines of the EU CBEC Ecommerce Forum last week that the airport\u2019s new sister-airport relationship with Li\u00e8ge was aimed at learning how the Belgian hub had successfully attracted freighter operations away from Brussels Airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cLi\u00e8ge is right next to Brussels Airport,\u201d he said. \u201cBrussels is a passenger airport with flights coming in with combination carriers\u2026 and what Li\u00e8ge has successfully done is pull away all cargo flights and bring them to a cargo-friendly airport, and we want to do the same from Chicago O\u2019Hare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rockford wants to pursue a similar model around Chicago, targeting freighter operators looking for greater efficiency.<\/p>\n

Mr Espinet said Rockford was still \u201c10 to 15 years behind\u201d where Li\u00e8ge had been when it began its development, but saw the relationship as an opportunity to learn from the Belgian airport and approach carriers already operating there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can learn from them and take the best of the best of what they\u2019ve done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The strategy forms part of a wider push to turn Rockford from a predominantly domestic parcel hub into a more significant international cargo gateway. The airport handles around 85 freighters a day, with UPS and Amazon among its major operators.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a lot of parcels for UPS and Amazon, and so [Li\u00e8ge] can learn from us the other way. We\u2019re sharing best practices on both sides,\u201d Mr Espinet said.<\/p>\n

He told The Loadstar<\/em> the focus for Rockford was now on attracting more international scheduled services and building a global hub. Rockford\u2019s pitch to carriers is increasingly centred on efficiency \u2013 particularly compared with congested O\u2019Hare.<\/p>\n

Mr Espinet explained the airport could unload an aircraft within an hour, load trucks in 10-15 minutes and have freight delivered into Chicago in around an hour and 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Some Chicago facilities, he said, were finding freight arrived faster from Rockford than from O\u2019Hare, despite O\u2019Hare being closer.<\/p>\n

The difference, he argued, was congestion at the larger airport, including aircraft taxiing and queues of trucks waiting to recover freight, whilst at Rockford, cargo is staged by truck number as it comes off the aircraft, allowing ground handlers to load two truck positions simultaneously once unloading is complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very, very quick,\u201d Mr Espinet said.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that persuading carriers to move operations remained difficult, given their existing infrastructure, crews, warehouses and customer relationships at established gateways, but he argued that, where the economics work, Rockford could offer carriers and their customers both cost savings and greater efficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes economic sense,\u201d he said. \u201cYou bring more efficiency\u2026 plus cost savings.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, whilst Li\u00e8ge is known for its ecommerce handling, Mr Espinet noted Rockford is \u201ctrying to focus on high-value cargo coming through\u201d, but\u00a0highlighted that there is still \u201ca definite need\u201d to bring ecommerce due to the volume that it attracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s verticals like aerospace, defense. I would say pharmaceuticals is also something that Li\u00e8ge\u00a0has done very well, but we would like to see if we can copy and paste, maybe do it even better,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Check out this week\u2019s News in Brief podcast<\/a>, featuring Rotate\u2019s Jonathan Mellink.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0024.JPG 15 September 2026 Chicago Rockford International Airport is looking to replicate the success of Li\u00e8ge Airport as it seeks to establish itself as a major alternative cargo gateway to Chicago O\u2019Hare, according to Rene Espinet, vice-president of cargo business development at Rockford. Mr Espinet told The Loadstar on the sidelines of the EU CBEC 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15 September 2026 Chicago Rockford International Airport is looking to replicate the success of Li\u00e8ge Airport as it seeks to establish itself as a major alternative cargo gateway to Chicago O\u2019Hare, according to Rene Espinet, vice-president of cargo business development at Rockford. Mr Espinet told The Loadstar on the sidelines of the EU CBEC…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phf4fX-1yY","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/60ff31ad7053768d888d57e6bfd20068-680x0-c-default-eKvcXr.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/280549882"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}