Huntley Lawrence: “There is a lot
18 AIRPORT VOICE, OCTOBER 2021
PANYNJ Aviation Director talks cargo and redevelopment
BY JEFF YAPALATER
Air Cargo has been the most
important form of transporting
goods around the world for decades.
Through time, advances
in aircraft capacity, landside operations,
warehousing, ground
handling, customs and brokerage
have enabled more and
more goods to be shipped via
air. Most recently the Covid
pandemic has impacted shipping
and handling of goods
presenting us at this moment
in time with an avalanche of
disruption in the product supply
chain. The manufacture of
goods overseas has been erratic
with the constant changes
of the spread of Covid. This
coupled with the shortage of
ships, workforce and truckers
has brought a serious logjam of
arriving products at the nations
seaports and airports.
There has been slow improvement
in technology in
the traditional ways of shipping
goods with digitization of manifests,
and actual warehouse
handling. This was an evolution
that kept up with the flow
of goods before the pandemic.
Planes with bellies of imported
goods, freighters with tons of
goods and a warehouse complex
with a workforce healthy
were equal to the task of handling
products globally and here
at the Port Authority airports.
However within the past several
months the system has been
crippled by the exact opposite
with an abundance of freighters,
cargo-in-cabin loads, ad
hoc charters and truck flights
from other major airports unable
to handle the increased
loads.
This has left JFK and EWR
overwhelmed and in need of
immediate and long-term advances
ready for the increasing
and unpredictable future of air
cargo.
Port Authority Aviation Director
Huntley Lawrence, a 36
year Port employee in aviation,
discussed existing air cargo
facilities, improvements, and
plans for the major airports under
his directorship employing
4000 people with 1500 of them
in the aviation unit. He he says
the seaports are a huge part of
the Port business, “ we get into
the nitty gritty” at the airports
with the Port being involved
with the customer experience in
many ways through their terminal
partnerships.
Lawrence is responsible for
the major JFK, EWR and Stewart
air cargo airports as well as
all aviation and passenger centric
airports LGA, and Teterboro.
He explained that most
recent redevelopment has been
on the passenger side with the
new LGA, Terminal A at Newark
and the multi-faceted redevelopment
at JFK. He is proud
to point to the soon to be completed
overhaul at LGA and new
Terminal A at Newark. Both
projects having been built during
day-to-day ongoing construction.
To be sure at times
it was challenging, but the goal
was always in sight even with
the pandemic raging, as Rick
Cotton has mentioned in his address
to the Board f Commissioners.
Lawrence said “There is a lot
on the table with a lot to bring
together and resolve,” he said,
referring to the “robust expansion
at all three major airports
never before experienced in the
Port’s 100 years, ” with the goal
of continuous improvement.
When asked that there was
some stakeholder feeling that
local concerns do not make it
or get lost downtown at Aviation
headquarters, Lawrence said,
“No, not at all. We go through
the general managers who and
are in tune and connect at facilities,
not just weekly but month
hey what’s going on” meetings
for alignment of policy. He referred
to the local issue of runways
at JFK and EWR and how
they were brought to him and
worked with the community to
solve. When it comes to cargo,
he pointed out that Teddy Minch
has recently been brought in
for the overall broader, strategic
cargo redevelopment. He
continued saying that any major
cargo deals happen downtown.
When it comes to significant
matters, they are driven
from here. T4, T6 T1 and T all
through these types of conversations
originating from our
general managers. As an example,
when it came to the new
Aeroterm building at JFK, “I was
speaking with folks every Friday
to get it across the finish line.”
An example of working with
local is the runway repair/replacement
at JFK and EWR.