Vital Link In Cool Chain

   Perishables shippers receive expedient and efficient service at Hartsfield-Jackson’s Perishables Center.
   The Atlanta Perishables Center is totally climate-controlled and features on-site distribution and transport capabilities, USDA inspection services and a fumigation chamber. Hartsfield-Jackson is the only airport in the Southeast approved by the USDA to apply cold treatment, an environmentally safe alternative to methyl bromide.
   At the Perishables Complex any and all perishables, including flowers, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, can be distributed through Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta
   The 42,000 square foot (3,780 square meter) Perishables Complex has four massive cooling facilities, featuring a full range of temperatures: -5 degrees F (- 20 degrees C), 34 degrees F (1 degree C), 42 degrees F (5.6 degrees C) and 55 degrees F (12.7 degrees C).
   Operations at the Perishables Complex include reception, storage, transportation and delivery; repacking and cooperage; ice-making and supply; presentation for Federal Inspection Services; fumigation and plant washing; packing, crating and general cargo handling; incineration and/or destruction of USDA rejected shipments, and aircraft handling.
   Next door to the Perishables Center is the 21,000 square foot (1,890 square meters) Hartsfield Atlanta Equine Complex, designed to handle, inspect and process animals, be it a single thoroughbred or a full charter of livestock.
   The 78-stall facility features on-site USDA Veterinarian Services, USDA regulated disinfection of all stables and aircraft, a weather-proof loading area, holding pens for examination and bathing, etched floors to prevent slippage, imported rubber matting and individual drainage for each stall and an automated insect control system that routinely emits a mist into each stall.
   An all pro-team, including Tim Holt, vp operations (right) and Daniel Lopez, operations manager (left), brings several degrees of separation between the profit and loss reports of a growing list of cargo carriers at ATL (Delta is the biggest), that use the airport perishables operation to expand their service package.

Top Cargo Club At One Beautiful Airport

     The Atlanta Air Cargo Association is Best Air Cargo Club In The World for 2005.
     This marks the second consecutive year we have recognized AACA as best.

2006 AACA Officers—Rachael Worley, FedEx Trade Networks; Kevin Madden, Global Airlift Services; Dawn Frey, Pilot Air Freight; Beverly Horan, AZ Warehouse. Missing from photo but never from Club is Harold Hagans.

 AACA has been in business for 35 years since 1969 getting things done, while supporting the air cargo community and raising money for hundreds of college kids to study transportation.
     Maybe much or some of the same can be said for other cargo organizations, but AACA is one of the few airport cargo associations in the world that says right up front in the club mission statement that it is in business to “establish educational programs and activities in order to encourage the professional development of members in air cargo transportation and allied fields of commerce.”
     AACA in 2005 awarded two individual scholarships to Georgia State University and to University of Georgia.
     In addition a contribution was made to the ongoing endowment at Georgia Southern University.
     Also a new endowment scholarship for $25,000 was started at Clayton College and State University with a $2500 contribution,
     AACA now owns four endowment scholarships.
     AACA charitable donations include March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, Wesley Community Centers, AIDS Atlanta and others.
     Monthly luncheons are well-subscribed networker's delight, interesting, informative with interesting speakers that are held atop a nearby Marriott Hotel overlooking the main runways at ATL.
     A luncheon we enjoyed there one month accompanied by a healthy wedge of (what else) peach pie may be the best air cargo club grub anywhere.
     There is something else about AACA.
     Described by reputation as southern hospitality, whether you are member or casual observer the feeling that takes over as this group meets in a hotel or a golf course is reminiscent of something TS Elliot wrote:
               "You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,
               And how, how rare and strange it is, to find
               In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,
               To find a friend who has these qualities,
               Who has, and gives
               Those qualities upon which friendship lives.”