Planes, Cranes, and Barges: How America Is Adapting to Supply Chain Chaos
Mississippi River cargo traffic near Luling, La.
Photographer: Ryan Dickinson/U.S. Coast Guard/ZUMA Press/ZUMA Press Wire Service
On the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, where the remains of a 200-year-old canal built to connect Cleveland with Cincinnati snake around new warehouse parks, a modern tributary of the global economy widens a little more with each planeload of goods that roars down its runways. Rickenbacker International Airport was a bustling hub for air freight well before the pandemic—a day’s truck drive to half of the U.S. population, so the slogan goes. In the past two years, another role emerged: economic relief valve for auto parts, consumer products, and pharmaceuticals to flow around the more prominent but clogged arteries of U.S. trade.
The former wartime airbase handled a record 1,655 international cargo arrivals in 2021, a 73% jump from 2019, and overall tonnage rose 18%. Freighters and reconfigured passenger jets fly in from Asia and the Middle East, operated by the cargo units of Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Korean Air, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, and several other carriers. Nearby are distribution centers for companies ranging from Macy’s Inc. to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. And 25 miles north, Intel Corp. is building a $20 billion plant to make semiconductors in the heart of the Rust Belt to alleviate domestic chip shortages.