While Pittsburgh International Airport is getting ready to break ground on a $1.1 billion modernization plan for its passenger terminal, the airport's CEO says the future is in cargo.
While public [spending on American infrastructure fell by $9.4 billion from 2007 and 2017, Pittsburgh has decided to take the opposite approach. "With our [airline] partners, we have determined that we need to make this infrastructure investment," CEO Christina Cassotis told Cheddar Thursday.
She said she hopes, through modernizing the airport, passengers will see it "as more than just a facility … to get on and off the plane to get to your Uber or your taxi." She also noted that sustainability will be a "huge factor" in the new terminal, scheduled to open in 2023.
"We are redefining what it means to be an airport in the United States," Cassotis said.
While the investment in a new passenger terminal is underway, the airport is also trying to increase its cargo business, which Cassotis called "a huge deal for us." Amazon is currently not using its airport to transport packages, but she said, "We would love to welcome them."
"We believe that we've got the facilities and the geography for a logistics play. We're going after cargo," she said.
Cassotis noted that the $19 million federal grant was awarded for a cargo terminal last month was the first of its kind. The new terminal will help Pittsburgh attract attention far beyond the Pennsylvania border, and show potential new cargo partners "we are national critical infrastructure."
In October, Pittsburgh International Airport also announced it is investing in a microgrid to become 100 percent self-reliant on its own electricity generation. The project is slated to be completed by 2021. It's predicted by Peoples Gas utility and the airport authority it will save the airport about $500,000 a year, or about 7 percent of the airport's annual electric bill.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced that 100,000 businesses have signed up for a new database that collects ownership information intended to help unmask shell company owners. Yellen says the database will send the message that “the United States is not a haven for dirty money.”
A new version of the federal student aid application known as the FAFSA is available for the 2024-2025 school year, but only on a limited basis as the U.S. Department of Education works on a redesign meant to make it easier to apply.
A steep budget deficit caused by plummeting tax revenues and escalating school voucher costs will be in focus Monday as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature return for a new session at the state Capitol.
The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years is on its way to the moon. The private lander from Astrobotic Technology blasted off Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, catching a ride on United Launch Alliance's brand new rocket Vulcan.
Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oil fell last year from record highs in 2022, when Russia’s war in Ukraine, drought and other factors helped worsen hunger worldwide, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.
Wall Street is drifting higher after reports showed the job market remains solid, but key parts of the economy still don’t look like they’re overheating.
The Biden administration is docking more than $2 million in payments to student loan servicers that failed to send billing statements on time after the end of a pandemic payment freeze.
The nation’s employers added a robust 216,000 jobs last month, the latest sign that the American job market remains resilient even in the face of sharply higher interest rates.
A U.S. labor agency has accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company.
