The FedEx Boeing 757 delivery place will fly by at the second annual Breitling Huntington Beach Airshow, Sat. Sun., Sept. 30 Oct. 1., with a practice day Friday, Sept. 29 at Huntington Beach. (Photo courtesy Breitling Huntington Beach Airshow)
By Brian Whitehead | bwhitehead@scng.com | San Bernardino Sun
Published: July 25, 2018 at 7:00 am | Updated: July 25, 2018 at 7:01 am
FedEx Express will begin operating daily cargo flights out of San Bernardino International Airport in October, under terms of a new 10-year agreement.
The news comes less than a month after the express transportation giant extended its lease at Ontario International Airport another three decades and pledged to make $100 million in improvements there.
San Bernardino Councilwoman Virginia Marquez, whose ward includes the airport, called the partnership “a game-changer for the city of San Bernardino and the surrounding region.”
“We’re turning the corner,” she said by phone last week. “We’re on our way to becoming a world-class city. We’ll be seeing a lot of traffic at the airport, which is a dream come true for me. … We’re beginning to see the seeds of what we’d planted some time ago come to fruition.”
Earlier this year, FedEx officials contacted the San Bernardino Airport Authority about expanding their Inland operations, said Mark Gibbs, the airport’s aviation director.
The company will occupy a 57,000-square-foot facility at the airport and could operate four to five flights a week.
FedEx officials declined to comment on the agreement, referring instead to a press release that said, in part, the partnership “will enhance the company’s air cargo network in the region.”
FedEx will hire about 60 employees to assist with daily operations, Gibbs said.
“The region has been growing a lot, particularly in the logistics sector of the economy,” Gibbs added. “(FedEx) has had a presence at Ontario for at least two decades, so it’s natural for them to expand their footprint.”
John Husing, an Inland Empire economist, called the agreement between FedEx and San Bernardino International “a burst to the economy.”
“That whole field of logistics,” he said, “whether it’s airports or trucking or warehousing, it’s our competitive advantage, the thing we have that got us out of the recession. And it’s continuing to create jobs for us.”
To read expanded article, click here.
Its business as usual at The Sun; in this case exaggerate and twist the facts to try to put a positive spin on the staggering waste of money at the San Bernardino International Airport.
For example, the first sentence of this article announces an “agreement” under which “FedEx Express will begin operating daily cargo flights out of San Bernardino International Airport.” However, deeper in the article is the statement that they “could operate four to five flights a week.”
So rather than “daily” flights, which to me means every day, there MIGHT be 4 or 5 flights a week.
And according to a City of San Bernardino Council member, this is a “game-changer for the city of San Bernardino,” who is “on their way to becoming a world class city.”
Even if FedEx Express starts up “daily” flights out of the airport, that would be 365 flights a year. Would any other city in the USA with an International Airport consider an additional 365 flights a year as a “game-changer” for the city?
And I would be interested in her definition of a “world class city.”
Finally, I noted that FedEx had the good sense to not comment about the agreement to The Sun; perhaps they knew what might have happened had they done so.
Calling Scot Spencer, the Airport can begin using all the equipment you purchased and refurbished. Oh wait, did someone say freight? Nevermind…..
Any article that would quote the Warehouse King, Hack Husing, is not worth reading.
Too bad the Sun cant do an expose on how Husing convinced cities in the IE that warehouses and torn up, damaged streets and big rigs clogging local streeets was a positive economic development. That dirtbag would sell his family away if the price were right. Warehouses have done nothing but bring smog, additional expenses, truck traffic, congestion, noise pollution and wasting valuable land to the IE. Husing bears almost all responsibility..
I continue to laugh at those who think some day San Bernardino will be some kind of Beverly Hills in any respect.
It’s a shit hole no matter how you slice it and has been for decades.
If you think it’s a step above Detroit put your name behind it and speak up.
The politicians around here continue to be nothing better than a Snake Oil salesman.
No body with a brain is going to drop millions into this city. But there a dummies who might.
Keep up the good work San Bernardino Sun.
Did I tell you Chicago is doing better.