John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York maintained the position of top U.S. international freight gateway by value of shipments in 2005, according to DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
BTS reported that JFK handled $59.3 billion in export trade and $75.6 billion in imports, totaling $134.9 billion in merchandise that moved through the port in 2005.
JFK airport has been the number one U.S. international gateway by value for all but one year between 1999 and 2005, the exception being 2003 when the water Port of Los Angeles took the number one spot. In 2005, JFK handled $547 million more freight than the second largest gateway, the Port of Los Angeles. Ranked third is the land port of Detroit, Mich., with $131 billion.
On a regional multimodal basis, Los Angeles area gateways handled $51 billion more trade in 2005 than the air and water ports in the New York-New Jersey area. The water ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach combined with Los Angeles International Airport processed about $332 billion of trade, topping the combined $281 billion that moved through the New York-New Jersey area -- $135 billion through JFK, $16 billion through Newark-Liberty International Airport and $130 billion through the water port of New York and New Jersey.
In 2005, over $2.5 trillion in U.S. exports and imports moved through more than 400 international freight gateways across the United States. The top 20 international freight gateways handled nearly $1.5 trillion or 57.7 percent of all U.S. international freight.
