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.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
