The e-commerce boom during the pandemic has given a lift to the air cargo industry in general – and the prospect of a major air cargo facility at the Pease airport in particular. 

The Pease Development Authority recently granted the Kane Co. and PROCON Inc., two Portsmouth-area companies that have previously worked together on various projects, an exclusive 18-month option to explore the possible development of two parcels at the airport into major air cargo facilities. 

Kane and PROCON, via its TST Development unit, will analyze the potential demand for air cargo services at Pease, the size of possible new facilities, and likely tenants and “end users” of air-cargo operations at the former U.S. Air Force base, where the commercial side of the site is now officially known as Portsmouth International Airport. 

“We don’t know yet how much [space] might be needed,” said John Stebbins, managing director of PROCON, which has built aviation facilities in the past at Pease, Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts. “We’re still in the very early stages of investigating. But we’re feeling very confident we can find the right end-users [for future air-cargo facilities].” 

One thing is clear: Any new facility, or facilities, likely won’t be as large as suggested in preliminary plans filed by Kane-PROCON with the Pease Development Authority.  

Paul Brean, executive director at the Pease Development Authority, said a number of site requirements – such as building setbacks, roadway entrances and exits and parking lots – will undoubtedly lead to “much smaller buildings than people think.” 

He declined to say how big any eventual air cargo facilities might be, but he said they likely won’t be in the range of 300,000 to 400,000 square feet, as indicated in the development team’s filings. 

Stebbins and Michael Kane, chief executive of Kane Co., stressed their development team was merely suggesting the maximum amount of space that could be built on the two airport sites in question – and they acknowledged the final sizes of buildings will likely be smaller than early plans indicate. 

Competing Proposal in the Offing? 

The new Pease aircargo study isn’t without some controversy. 

Eric Robinson, chief executive of East West Aeronautical LLC, said he was “surprised” that the PDA gave Kane-PROCON the exclusive 18-month option to come up with a development proposal before his firm could file its own preliminary plans.  

He said his New Hampshire-based company was the first to float the idea of an air-cargo facility at Pease back in 2020. He said his firm envisions potentially building 900,000 square feet of space at Pease, which would include a “super hanger” capable of handling planes the size of Boeing 747 jumbo jets. 

“I’m not anywhere close to giving up” on developing an air-cargo facility at Pease, Robinson recently told The Registry Review. 

PDA’s Brean said his agency went with the Kane-PROCON team, and not East West Aeronautical, for a simple reason: Robinson’s firm has never formally submitted a tentative plan for review. 

“Right now, we have not seen any business proposal from them,” he said. 

High Demand for Air Freight 

Competing development proposals aside, there’s little doubt that the pandemic-era explosion in e-commerce activity has increased demand for air-cargo services, especially since ocean cargo shipping has been hampered of late by clogged ports along U.S. coastlines. 

Glyn Hughes, director general of the International Air Cargo Association, said he couldn’t comment on the need for more air-cargo services in the Portsmouth area.  

But he said general demand for air-cargo services has definitely risen in recent years due to the increase in e-commerce activity.  

“The pandemic rewrote the air-cargo book,” Hughes said. “Current e-commerce activity has just eclipsed all previous demand.” 

Air-cargo service is considerably more expensive than other options for shipping goods, such as train, truck and ocean-ship services.  

As a result, most air-cargo items are either time-sensitive products, such as food, flowers and pharmaceutical goods, or high-end expensive products, such as cell phones and other electronic gadgets. 

According to industry experts, a new cargo facility at Pease could handle classic Granite State export items such as seafood products, maple syrup, furniture, electronic items and higher-end manufactured goods. Imports would include many of the same items aimed for distribution to the entire eastern New England region. 

Competition for Manchester? 

There are relatively new air-cargo services available at nearby Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.  

But East West’s Robinson and others say that Pease has a much longer runway, nearly 2 miles in length, than Manchester-Boston, making it more attractive for huge, heavy cargo planes that need longer runways for landings and takeoffs. 

“Pease is ideal for international cargo flights,” Robinson said. 

Michael Kane, head of Kane Co., agrees there’s enough demand for air-cargo facilities at both Manchester-Boston and Pease. 

“It’s not an either-or situation,” said Kane, whose company owns nine industrial buildings at or near Pease. “Saying there’s already air cargo [service] at one airport is like saying there’s an industrial park in Dover, so why would you need one in Portsmouth? The answer is: You need both.” 

He added that e-commerce has altered both the U.S. and global economies.  

“Structurally, the world is changing how it does business,” he said. 

PROCON’s Stebbins said his company and Kane are currently working with a broker to identify potential air cargo tenants at Pease. He declined to identify the broker. 

He said the two multi-acre parcels being eyed for air-cargo operations at Pease – known as the North40 and Hanger 227 sites – are currently underutilized and prime for redevelopment. 

“It’s amazing these two parcels are still available” for future uses, he said. “We’re optimistic about development plans.”