A MIDWEST China Hub at St Louis Lambert International Airport is one "big idea" that is wasting taxpayers dollars for airport personnel salaries, consultancy fees based on little evidence it can compete with Chicago O'Hare airport, said air cargo consultant Michael Webber, who has worked for the International Air Transport Association.

    Missouri lawmakers were banking on a US$360 million package of Aerotropolis tax credits, which offered credit breaks of $60 million for freight forwarders over an eight-year period, said Mr Webber, also president of the consultancy Webber Air Cargo.

    With this it was hoped to seal the deal with Chinese government to create tax breaks for construction of a 2.50 million square metre warehouse and factory space at St Louis to be promoted as a perishables hub, he said.

    The Webber Air Cargo president said that the state of Missouri have wasted public money amounting to US$400 million in a speculative venture considered "a bad idea or maybe even a big, fat lie."

    Mr Webber said it was sheer audacity of St Louis in believing that forwarders will change allegiance to an airport ranked 39th largest airport from Chicago O'Hare that provides superior frequencies, international destinations and mix of operators (both all-cargo and belly-offering) passenger carriers and international all-cargo airlines such as Japanese operator Nippon Cargo Airlines and European all-cargo power Cargolux.

    "With no evidence, big-idea champions believe shippers need an alternative to O'Hare, suggesting that international air cargo shippers are disadvantaged by having to truck freight a few hours past St. Louis to Chicago but many international shippers already truck shipments from the Midwest much further to gateways like Los Angeles and Miami," he said.

    The lack of independent analysis or rigorous application procedure for airport operators by the Federal Aviation Administration has allowed the "big idea" to take hold in media circles and for dubious hiring of a former congressional staffer to go unnoticed.

    Senator Christopher Bond who lobbied for the Midwest hub project and the gaining of federal stimulus funds of $12 million, has been criticised for gaining a federal hand-out of $1 million used for work on the Midwest hub and for appointing its former chief of staff Jason Van Eaton the role of executive director for the Midwest China Hub Commission.

    The commission's annual budget of $1.5 million, mostly financed by the state and Washington, covered steep fees for contracts securing air cargo flights by St Louis law firm Stone, Leyton and Gershman valued at up to $400,000 a contract, and for Steve Stone's business consultation $15,000 a month in writing legislation for tax incentives in the city. To top it all the cargo director at the airport earns 50 per cent more a year than other's in similar positions at much larger airports, said Mr Webber.

    "Missouri should not only abandon consideration of future funding, it should seek to recover what has already been wasted," Mr Webber said, slamming "legislators and state bureaucrats, as well as members of the media who lazily parroted talking points. He said they should repent for having so carelessly treated a potential obligation of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, even as so many much more worthy priorities confront Missouri."

(Resource:www.shippingonline.cn)