The air cargo industry was already growing before the pandemic. Now it’s booming, writes Keith Schneider for The New York Times.

Philadelphia International Airport is developing 1.5 million square feet of cargo handling facilities. It paid $54.5 million three years ago for undeveloped land next to the airfield.

 “We knew, pre-pandemic, that cargo was only going to increase,” said Stephanie Wear, the airport’s director of air service development and cargo services.

E-commerce sales were growing more than 10 percent annually before the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, with estimates that air cargo would reach 45 million tons by mid-century.

The pandemic has altered the online commerce landscape so much that the air cargo industry now expects to hit that mark a decade early.

Amazon is at work expanding its national air transport network. It’s creating an eventual 3 million square-foot cargo hub at CVG, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, which will be the center of its network.

It’s also adding 22 Boeing 767-300 aircraft to its current fleet of 70 aircraft.

Cargo areas are expanding at other airports nationwide to keep up with the demand.

Read more about the air cargo business at The New York Times.