With up to two billion pounds of cargo traveling through the airport each year, RFD is ranked as the 17th largest airport in the nation for air cargo volume. It is home to the second largest UPS hub in North America as well as other leaders in the air cargo industry, including ABX Air, ATI, Atlas Air and LGSTX Services Inc. With the airport’s recent cargo expansions and additional flights by Amazon Prime and other Amazon carriers, Rockford is quickly becoming a Midwest hub for e-commerce freight. Currently, the airport manages 35 to 40 flights from its cargo tenants every 24 hours.
RFD is located 68 road miles northwest of Chicago O’Hare International Airport. RFD offers significant advantages to Air Cargo Carriers and Air Freight Forwarders. Cargo Airlines using RFD save fuel, save time, and save money. Independent airspace assures direct in approaches. Surrounded by expressways running north, south, east and west, RFD has excellent accessibility for speedy road feeder services.
A US Customs Port, RFD offers fabulous modern facilities, long runways, Category II/III Instrument Landing System and low-cost rent and landing fees. All of this can result in savings of millions of dollars yearly.
The history of the current road feeder services shows a time of 91 minutes between RFD and ORD. These numbers are consistent in winter as well as summer.
RFD has been home to the second largest North American Hub for United Parcel Service (UPS) since 1994.
ABX Cargo Airlines recently made RFD an operating base. Daily cargo flights will begin on September 8, 2016. ABX is working within phase one of the newest cargo ramp and operating out of the ramp-side 72,000 sq. ft. cargo warehouse, all part of a multi-phase expansion of cargo capabilities.
To make operations run even smoother for the Air Freight Forwarding Industry, a Drop Station in Bensenville, IL was established. The Drop Station is next to O’Hare Airport Cargo Areas with drop-off and pick up adjacent to O’Hare.
The addition of one of the most modern Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities which are run by AAR, Inc. are capable of handling the largest and most modern aircraft flying today. This adds to the additional convenience of having line maintenance and “checks” for those airlines serving RFD.
RFD is conveniently located minutes from major highways with Interstate highway access to Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and beyond.