Mercury Air Cargo’s President and Chief Operating Officer John Peery expresses amazement at the huge growth in cargo and is proud of his company’s ability to handle such significant growth.

“Consider that typically a good month was handling 42 million kilos – this month we handled 52 million kilos. And generally, our busiest months are March, October, and November. We ‘ve already surpassed in June what we handled last March.”

And even more cargo is waiting in the wings. E-commerce today is where it was predicted to be in five years. This has led to a lack of capacity of space and containers at LAX.

Peery states, “There are increasing opportunities as well with companies who are brokering the movement of post office mail, and that can lead to 60 million kilos pers month. But this is where we cap out. All of our buildings would be at maximum capacity.”

With the European market opening up, along with Asia remaining strong, demand is extremely high for air cargo capacity on all airlines. Even with rising fuel prices, anything that can fly does.

With continuing growth, it is crucial that management of the cargo handling chain improves and becomes more streamlined. The new online reservation system has reduced dock engagement times down as low as 30 minutes, creating efficiencies for workers and improving the environment with less truck idling time.  This system allows Mercury Air Cargo to monitor the entire process and then communicate when it is time to pick up or drop off the cargo.

One of the terminals, located at 10200 Aviation Blvd., is now serviced by reservations only. This means that once someone has received confirmation that shipments are ready for pick up, they may select a day and time for collection of the cargo through the reservation system.

“This is a unique service which the market has embraced, “says Margaretha Laseen, Director of Commercial Development for Mercury Air Group.”

All Mercury terminals now offer reservation opportunities which will shorten the delivery and pick up times significantly.  The staff strongly urges the LAX cargo community to take advantage of the service.