Global Air Cargo-Industrial Complexes as Development Tools

A new economic era is being spawned by three interacting forces of immense significance: (a) the globalization of business transactions, (b) a shift to just-in-time manufacturing and inventory control methods, and (c) the growing need of firms to dispatch smaller, more frequent shipments quickly to distant markets. The ability of any state or locality in the coming decades to maximize indigenous commercial growth, expand exports, and attract major investment from around the nation and the world will require understanding the new economy and harnessing the forces creating it. In North Carolina, an examination of how these forces might be leveraged to the state's competitive advantage has led to the formulation of a global air cargo-industrial complex This proposed complex would integrate (both spatially and operationally) just-in-time manufacturing systems with airfreight systems such that the two systems function as a synergistic unit. Although some of the preliminary analysis that supports the proposed complex is specific to North Carolina, the underlying concepts may prove attractive to other states interested in exploiting major changes in production processes, transportation, and global trade to generate new economic growth.