RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And the deteriorating economies around the world mean less cargo is moving around the skies. Tennessee's Nashville International Airport just experienced its worst monthly decline in freight since the days after 9/11. From member station WPLN, Blake Farmer reports.
BLAKE FARMER: Shipping had been a bright spot for the Nashville airport, even as passenger numbers declined through 2008. But December saw a 33-percent dive.
(Soundbite of door opening)
FARMER: The evidence is in the warehouse of China Air.
Mr. RON PIERCE (Nashville Sales Representative, China Airlines): You can walk out here and go, huh, it doesn't look like America's shipping that much.
(Soundbite of warehouse)
FARMER: Ron Pierce is the China Air sales rep in Nashville. Just outside his office, pallets covered by cargo nets sparsely dot the tarmac. Six planes a week bring in parts for Dell computers from Taipei. They return to Asia with MasterCraft ski boats, Mercedes Benz sedans, and glass TV screens manufactured by Corning. In fact, Corning accounted for more than 600 tons of freight per month - until now. Pierce says the company has downshifted its order, and moved shipments to much slower ocean liners. Corning isn't in the rush it once was.
Mr. PIERCE: You know, if the ocean has got free space, then they're the cheapest. That's the way you're going to go.
(Soundbite of warehouse)
FARMER: The cargo operation at Nashville International accounts for some 700 jobs. Each China Air 747 takes a dozen workers to load. Airport operations chief Monty Burgess says China Air has already scaled back expansion plans for an additional flight into Nashville each week.
Mr. MONTY BURGESS (Chief Operating Officer, Nashville International Airport): If it continues like it is now, which is quite probable, we could very easily see in the next couple of months, or maybe even sooner, some of that inbound flight service being eliminated because it's nonprofitable to them.
FARMER: Burgess says cargo planes will stop coming in if they're always leaving half empty, and fewer flights means less money in landing fees for the airport and fewer jobs in Nashville, a downward spiral that's become all too familiar in today's economy. For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville.