Lambert’s China Hub? ‘Don’t Bet On It’

Kelly Hatmaker

January 20, 2011 12:08 PM

source: wikipedia

Filed under

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – No big deal.

That’s the reaction from aviation industry obsever Michael Boyd, to Wednesday’s annoucement that Lambert Airport will soon begin negotiating with a Chinese air carrier for cargo flights. “It might lead to an airplane coming in from China,” Boyd told KMOX’s Charlie Brennan show today. “But a hub, where it would be a major gateway for access from China? Not on a bet.”

Boyd said St. Louis is simply too far from the remaining North American markets China hopes to reach, to make any large scale export operation feasable. “The arguement that they’re going to ship goods into St. Louis and then tranship it everywhere, totally negates the reason to ship it by air in the first place, which is to get goods to market fast,” Boyd explained. And it doesn’t make financial sense for China to import agricultural goods from the Midwest, either. “Shipping food by air is obscenely expensive, unless its the Berlin Airlift,” Boyd said. “Those kinds of goods usually go by surface, if they go at all.”

Boyd also took local St. Louis leaders to task for advancing the premise that Lambert could be a shipping hub like Louisville International Airport, with its 30-thousand sorting jobs. “That is misleading as hell,” Boyd said, adding that Louisville has those jobs “because UPS put a sort center there, like FedEx did in Indianapolis. That’s very different than getting China Eastern to put one flight in to St. Louis.”

Copyright KMOX

stl lawyer

From what I understand, the idea behind the hub is not so much to bring products ‘from’ China but rather ship products ‘to’ China using a Chinese airline (China Eastern). Further, the Chinese are apparently interested in Lambert because it is largely empty, which would allow them establish a hub at which they could run the show. Lambert also supposedly moves goods through customs much more quickly than airports in other major cities.
Additionally, the recent moves to loosen restrictions with regard to beef imports makes local beef highly attractive to the Chinese, particularly considering how ridiculously expensive it is to buy even a mediocre steak in China. I assume China is also interested in importing locally made biotech products, medical supplies, and other goods that are more suited to air delivery.
In addition to locally produced products, it is my understanding that the Chinese are also considering using St. Louis or Mid-America as a mid-point between South America, particularly Argentina and Brazil. China is currently Brazil’s biggest trading partner.
As a side note, I tried reading the Chinese language portion of his website but couldn’t since it is written in traditional script as opposed to modern characters, which leads me to believe that he probably doesn’t have an in-depth understanding of issues surrounding contemporary China or Chinese interests in the US. Using such characters is almost like using Old English to address potential American clients. It might make sense if he were trying to communicate with Taiwanese, but it is pretty clear that the Mainland is his target.
Mark Nickless

There is no reason to use traditional characters on a website unless it is is used by businesses in Taiwan. I suspect that Boyd has a conflict of interest that he has not been up front about.
Richard

Boyd continually bad mouths St. Louis and our Airport whenever given the opportunity. He is a consultant from Colorado who gets his face on the media as an “aviation expert” . His company consults to small airports such as Springfield on air service development. He knows nothing about the talks with China by the St. Louis and Missouri officials but will always offer an opinion, usually wrong. When is Charlie B. and others in media going to quit calling this guy for an opinion.
wayne

YES BECAUSE CHINA BUYS SO MUCH STUFF FROM US OR YOU KIDDING STOP SELLING YOUR KIDS RIGHTS FOTR AMERICAN DREAM STOP BUYING CHINA NOW
http://internet Darryl Andre Kelly

I will love too be a part..of youll teamif thats ok….
Rene

This is totally unfair to our grandparents and family. The people that are on SSI; disability; pentions and unemployed and poor ,not to forget our veterans of service to this country. The money for this is being taken away more and more. This foolishness need to stop here and now. If everyone would pull together and patition against this, we could send it to Wasington DC, if we can get 6000 people to sign it. Its worth the fight do you not agree? Its not only going to hurt St.Louis but everyone everywhwere is going to be effected.