Because of places such as Fort Worth, the world we live in truly takes on village-like proportions. For businesses around the world, the best route from maker to user often passes to, through, or from Fort Worth.  DFW International Airport is one of the world’s top 5 airports, a major domestic and international hub serving 60 million travelers per year, with downtown Fort Worth only 17 miles away. Also minutes away, is the world’s first master-planned, industrial-use airport, Alliance Airport. And Fort Worth has two additional airports, Meacham International and Spinks.

As the axis of Interstate highways 20 and 35W, Fort Worth helps connect North America’s two coasts, all of Texas, the Gulf Coast, and Mexico from the north, the heart of America from the south, the verdant “deep South” to the Mississippi and beyond, and America’s west of legend and lore, all the way to California.

Fort Worth continues its rail heritage with its headquarters of the Fortune 500 company  Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, and home of its innovative Alliance intermodal terminal. Union Pacific, Amtrak, and The Trinity Rail Express, as well as BNSF, keep the rails humming in all directions through Fort Worth and beyond.

Dozens of local, national, and international companies populate the major business parks, almost all of which have rail connections and incentives such as Free Trade Zone (FTZ), Triple Freeport, and Enterprise Zone designations.

AIR TRANSPORTATION

With its American and Delta hubs accounting for more than 60 million passengers per year, DFW Airport easily provides for carriers serving all points of the world, including Continental, Northwest and United; low cost carriers such as US Airways and AirTran, and foreign flag carriers such as Air Canada, British Airways, Lufthansa, Mexicana, Aeromexico and many others.

In the last ten years, DFW’s international cargo more than tripled, confirming its status as the major mid-continent gateway to the world. DFW Airport’s dedicated air cargo facilities include direct road connections to the four major interstate highways in the area.

Recent developments at DFW Airport include the $1.2 billion Terminal D, the largest  post-9/11 airport construction project, with a 2 million square foot international wing which includes shops, restaurants, and exhibition and performance spaces.

Fort Worth Alliance Airport began as the world’s first master-planned industrial use airport, and now includes facilities for general aviation as well as an expanding logistics park complementing its intermodal capabilities. The Alliance Air Traffic Control Tower is widely recognized for its operational excellence. From Fort Worth Alliance, all types of commercial transport and corporate aircraft can easily access global markets, with a 13,000 foot runway extension underway to further enhance its traffic capabilities.

Fort Worth Meacham International Airport is a top 100 U.S. Airport featuring major general aviation and training, with two parallel runways and a crosswind runway, and is a magnet for corporate and student pilots from around the globe. Meacham has a 24/7 FAA-staffed Air Traffic Control Tower, and its longest runway, Runway 16/34, is 7,500 feet long. Within minutes of downtown Fort Worth and the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, Meacham provides many aircraft services including three full-service Fixed Base operators (FBO) and many major suppliers of aircraft modifications, avionics service, mechanical facilities, passenger terminal with restaurant and gift shops, and offices and meeting spaces. One such FBO is Texas Jet, which was voted #2 Best Independent FBO in the country in Pro Pilot’s 2005 survey, and has been featured on PBS television.

Serving the market area south of Fort Worth is Fort Worth Spinks Airport, 12 miles south of downtown, with one full service FBO and two 6,000 foot  runways, open to the public. Available services include major airframe maintenance and power plant service, piston engine overhauls, parts, service and repairs, ground transportation, air charters and rentals, avionics, pilot training and flight training.

In addition to its major airports, Fort Worth is also the corporate home of AMR Corporation, parent company of American Airlines, American Airlines Cargo, American Eagle, and locally based facilities such as Flagship University, American Airlines Travel Academy, American Airlines Flight Academy, the American Airlines Training and Conference Center, and American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum. American Airlines is the largest scheduled passenger airline in the world, with destinations throughout North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and the Pacific.

Also headquartered at DFW Airport is Aviall, the world’s largest provider of new aerospace parts and related aftermarket services, with an ISO 9002-registered central distribution warehouse at their airport facility, as well as many other services for the aerospace, defense and marine industries.

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION

Fort Worth is an enviable hub for access and navigation on the interstate system, not to mention average commute times which compare quite favorably with Dallas’ to the east. The highways have begun to incorporate Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which use advanced communication technology to increase safety, capacity and efficiency. The Trans-Texas Corridor, a project for 50 years into the future, is currently considering alternatives for TTC-35, a widening of the I-35 route from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast, which anticipates (spring 2006 study) a corridor approximately 10 miles wide, from which widths of 1,200 feet or less will be selected. The Trans-Texas Corridor is predicting huge population growth west of Tarrant County by 2010, and wants to prepare transportation routes that will include separate lanes for passenger vehicles and large trucks, freight and high-speed commuter railways, and utility infrastructures.

A more immediate project is the Texas 121/Southwest Parkway toll road extending 15 miles from downtown Fort Worth to as far as FM 1187 in Cleburne. Scheduled to open in late 2010, ground was broken in December 2005 for this $825 million project. The North Texas Tollway Authority plans a six-lane, controlled-access toll road, initially 8.2 miles in length, connecting Forest Park Boulevard to Altamesa Boulevard in the southwest quadrant of Fort Worth. Even with Fort Worth’s growth in population and traffic, the current typical commutes of 20-30 minutes in the immediate area will be continue to be stable, avoiding future congestion and tie-ups.

Intelligent planning is a hallmark of Fort Worth’s surface transportation system, relevant both to residents and the city’s greater role as a Texas and Southwest traffic hub. Currently, for example, traffic flows along I-35W north and Loop 820 are increasing along with development in the area, and private businesses have taken the lead to help landowners, developers, officials and transportation experts plan for environmental, aesthetic, and traffic standards consistent with the rapid pace of development. Population in this area alone is almost 200,000 residents with more than 100,000 jobs adding traffic, not to mention major destinations such as Texas Motor Speedway and Cabela’s, which draw visitors from all over Texas and the Southwest.

Not surprisingly, several specialty transportation firms have selected the Fort Worth area as their headquarters. Andrews Transport handles bulk liquid petroleum and chemical products transportation in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Con-Way Southern Express, part of Con-Way transportation services, specializes in next and second-day service in the southern United States for commercial and less-than-truckload freight. Lone Star Transportation is a flatbed specialized carrier and has recently developed an area of expertise in transporting components of wind farms to construction sites throughout the nation.

RAIL TRANSPORTATION

Railroading is not just an important legacy of Fort Worth, but also an essential feature of the present and future.  One of Fort Worth’s headquarters firms is Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp, a Fortune 500 company which employs more than 3,500 at its corporate headquarters and Fort Worth yard. The company had a record $1.5 billion profit for 2005 and is in expansion mode for the years ahead. 2006 brings $2.4 billion in capital improvements, including its Alliance intermodal terminal. The publicly traded company is also parent to BNSF Railway, a Fort Worth company that is the product of 390 different railroad lines that were merged or acquired during the last century and a half.

The Union Pacific Railroad is the largest railroad in the United States, and its Centennial Rail Yard, located in Fort Worth, is one of the railroad’s largest freight classification facilities.  Union Pacific competes with BNSF, and Fort Worth’s Tower 55 intersects both railroads, with a grade level crossing handling 30 BSNF freights daily, 50 Union Pacific freight trains daily, and significant passenger traffic as well. The passenger traffic includes not only Amtrak, but the Trinity Railway Express (TRE), a commuter rail service which links downtown Fort Worth, downtown Dallas and DFW Airport.  At the International Transit Center in downtown Fort Worth, passengers can board TRE or Amtrak. The commuter rail service is convenient and affordable Monday through Saturday, and does much to relieve traffic congestion and vehicle emissions in the Fort Worth area, as well as facilitate commuting between the two large urban areas.

LOGISTICS

Because of Fort Worth and what it has to offer, manufacturers around the world can find the most efficient labor markets, and use strategic warehouse and transfer facilities to move goods to end users in an equally efficient manner.

One example is Burlington Northern Santa Fe, with its intermodal terminal at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. Its current expansion recognizes the primacy of Asian exports into the U.S. From China alone, exports climbed from $45.5 billion in 1995 to $222.9 billion in the first 11 months of 2005. They arrive from China in modular containers on huge ships, debark at ports in southern California, and the contents of one ship can fill 12 100-car trains. In Fort Worth, the containers are transferred from those rail cars to truck trailers via forklift. BNSF continues to grow its stable of agreements with the long-haul trucking companies that keep the goods moving.

At DFW Airport, the North Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ 39) encompasses approximately 2,500 acres of land, including a business park, two air cargo distribution centers, and a 160,000 square-foot warehouse, owned by DFW Airport, for use by companies with foreign trade status. This area has unparalleled logistics support ranging from distribution handling, freight forwarding, export packing, cold storage and other services, to dedicated companies specializing in global logistics.

With its impressive logistics and transportation infrastructure, it’s little wonder that Fort Worth is also home to existing and developing distribution centers and business parks. On the south side is Carter Industrial Park, which includes distribution/warehouse tenants such as Pfizer Animal Health and Sav-On Office Supplies, and recently leased 852,000 square feet (with BNSF rail access) to Whirlpool Corporation, for its second regional distribution facility in the area. Office and distribution facilities such as Centreport Business Center, with tenants such as Whirlpool as well,  take advantage of easy airport access via state highways 183 and 360. The largest industrial center in Fort Worth is Railhead Fort Worth, a 633 acre park just a little over 10 miles from BNSF’s Intermodal Hub Center. With direct BNSF access, Railhead attracts tenants such as Del Monte Foods, Mattel, ConAgra, Albertson’s and Potlatch Corporation. In North Fort Worth, tenants such as Airborne Express, Bombay, Carter & Burgess, Dillards, Skytel Communications and Sprint PCS benefit from the premier business park facilities at Mercantile Center. And at Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Logistics Park-Alliance Texas is being developed to integrate direct rail, intermodal, truck and transload services with distribution and warehousing for greater efficiency, reliability and consistency, which translates to lower operating costs.

Among the many companies who have prospered in Fort Worth is the Ben E. Keith Company, distributor of food service products and Anheuser-Busch beers. Employing over 2,300 people, its foodservice division serves eight states and the beer division services 60 Texas counties. Clampitt Paper has six locations serving Texas and Oklahoma, including its strategically located Fort Worth distribution facility. DFW Movers & Erectors Inc. has become one of the leading rigging and millwright contractors in the U.S. Sabre Holdings Corp., with its well known companies Travelocity, Sabre Travel Network, and Sabre Airline Solutions, is headquartered in Southlake, just north of Fort Worth. At Alliance, the FedEx Southwest Regional Sort Hub is fully automated and integrally connected with the network. Many other companies take advantage of Fort Worth’s central location, including Coors, General Motors, Haggar Clothing,  JCPenney, Home Depot and Coaster Company of America.

Once a Texas crossroads, and then a gateway “where the west begins,” Fort Worth is now a global crossroads offering stellar advantages to businesses of all kinds.

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