Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport officials and the Metro Atlanta Chamber hosted their annual ATL Cargo Awards celebration Wednesday, May 4 at the Airport’s North Cargo facility. The luncheon honored businesses and leaders for their achievements in air cargo, welcomed new cargo carriers to ATL, and featured a look at burgeoning cargo opportunities at ATL.

Hartsfield-Jackson officials also vowed to catapult the ATL into the top five U.S. airports for cargo volume.

“Atlantans are visionaries. Anything we say we’re going to do, we’re going to do it,” Aviation General Manager Miguel Southwell told the luncheon crowd of nearly 200 attendees Wednesday.  “When we stand here, and we say that we’re going to move from 10th in the nation in cargo movement to within the top five in the nation, we’re going to do that, too.”

“I’d like to thank the cargo employees, freight forwarders, ground handlers, airlines and trucking companies,” said Vivica Brown, ATL’s assistant general manager for commercial development. “All of you who have helped make Hartsfield-Jackson a formidable contender in cargo aviation – a rising star in the industry – watch out world, here we come.”

The world’s most traveled airport, Hartsfield-Jackson made history last year as the first airport ever to serve more than 100 million passengers in a single year. Cargo traffic at ATL also experienced substantial growth as it accommodated more than 626,000 metric tons of cargo in 2015, a 4 percent increase in freight tonnage over 2014’s totals.  2015 also saw ATL transport its largest piece of cargo ever when a 200-ton power turbine was flown from Hartsfield-Jackson to Argentina.

During the luncheon Wednesday, ATL officials recognized and welcomed new cargo carriers AirbridgeCargo, CAL Cargo, China Cargo Airlines and Turkish Airlines.

Six awardees were also honored in the following categories:

Cargo Airline of the Year: Delta Air Lines, which transported more than 200,000 metric tons of cargo through ATL;

Belly-Cargo Airline of the Year: United Airlines, which saw a 56 percent increase in cargo transported through ATL;

All-Cargo Airline of the Year: Korean Air, which saw a 4 percent increase in metric tons of cargo shipped through ATL;

Cargo Employee of the Year: Denise Feltman, an Amerijet International employee who has served the cargo carrier for more than 19 years;

Freight Forwarder of the Year: Kintetsu World Express, for its work at ATL;

Trucking Company of the Year: J&P Hall Express, for its work at ATL.