Mercury Air Cargo is pleased to announce they will be begin operating out of San Jose California this spring.

The company will commence cargo handling services for Alaska Airlines on April 18th and a few weeks later will provide inaugural services for British Airways, with regular flights from San Jose to London, U.K. with a Boeing Dreamliner aircraft.

"There's a lot of opportunities for expansion in San Jose," said Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President John Peery, "We're going to be the first kids on the block to provide our level of international stevedoring," he said.

Peery explained that in the past, San Jose has been more of a transit station – cargo comes in and is then transported to San Francisco, where it is distributed locally, or it is sent on to Southern California, or the Northwestern states, or wherever it is headed.

Establishing Mercury Air Cargo in San Jose benefits the airlines because it will provide a broader scope of services, and give our customers the opportunity to have a commercial location as well. "It saves them time and money by having this type of facility in San Jose, and we hope that we will see the business grow very rapidly," Peery said.

It was Mercury Air Cargo's excellent working relationship with British Airways that prompted the airline to invite Mercury to San Jose.

It springboards, Peery said. "It's an opportunity, if we provide services in one port and do a good job, they ask us to go do another," he said. "The more relationships we have with a specific carrier, the stronger our long-term relationship is."

In late 2015, Mercury began looking into whether San Jose was a viable option, Peery said, and during that time they met with airport authority, scouted the facilities, and met with potential clients. "San Jose has done a great job of marketing their services. They have the population base of the central coast…they have more clear days (and less diversions than San Francisco), it is a very user friendly airport for the passenger travel, and 60-70% of the nonperishable traffic that goes out of San Francisco comes from the San Jose area, so it all makes sense."

Mercury Air Cargo is currently in the process of leasing buildings from San Jose and hiring new staff – everyone from management on down - to provide the services for the clients they currently have under contract. They also hope that client list will grow before too long.

"We're building the infrastructure there for international handling with significant volume," Peery said, and they are busy installing the material handling equipment to be the first in the area to provide that level of service.

"We will have a very prominent presence in San Jose with our expertise coming from Los Angeles and San Francisco," he said.