"Customers are going away from the premium services," said UPS air cargo spokesman Mike Mangeot. "As a result, the flights are just not at as near capacity as they have been in the past."
At BWI, the falloff is compounded by other factors, including the continuing loss of international service and Southwest Airlines' expansion into Philadelphia.
Several international airlines that transported cargo such as produce, seafood and medical equipment in their wide-bellied planes have pulled out of BWI in the past few years.
As a result, international freight volumes at BWI have fallen by more than half since 2004, to 6.5 million pounds last year -- less than 3 percent of overall freight traffic at BWI. For instance, Icelandair, which had been the airport's second-largest international carrier, halted service in mid-January. Seafood was one of the top items the airline transported, according to BWI spokesman Jonathan Dean.
British Airways, Baltimore's sole remaining trans-Atlantic carrier and its fifth-biggest cargo carrier, saw its freight volumes drop 26.4 percent in 2007, to 4.6 million pounds, Dean said.
But this year has proved a bright spot as the dollar has continued to fall against the British pound and euro, making exports cheaper. British Airways' BWI cargo was up by 60.2 percent in February and 18.9 percent in January, and BWI's overall international cargo shot up 25.5 percent compared with the year before.
BWI has scrambled to both attract and retain overseas service since its $147 million international terminal opened in 1997. While increasing passenger traffic is a main reason for adding flights to new foreign destinations, cargo business comes hand in hand when new airlines enter the market.
"On a per-flight basis, international passenger flights relative to domestic passenger flights generally carry significantly more cargo," said Brian Clancy, a managing director of Alexandria, Va.-based MergeGlobal, which does consulting for the air freight industry. "If it wasn't for that belly cargo and the profit you get from that, international flights would often lose money."
And as Southwest Airlines has expanded its flight network in nearby Philadelphia, more formerly Baltimore-bound shipments have been rerouted, said Wally Devereaux, the carrier's director of cargo sales. Southwest is BWI's third-biggest cargo carrier and top passenger airline.
