New Detroit Air Cargo Club

     This could be the start of something big!
     You know that feeling when you hear aircraft engines in the distance and your attention snaps toward the runway before anything even appears?
     That’s the mood around Detroit right now.
     Next month in April . . . no fooling . . . we will see a new air cargo association take off in Detroit and the first gathering is happening at a location that carries a lot of weight in aviation history.
     On April 7th, 2026, from 4:00 pm-7:00 p.m., the Detroit Air Cargo Association, (DACA), is holding its inaugural networking event at Avflight, the regional FBO at Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township, Michigan.
     And if your first reaction is, "Okay . . . a networking event. So what?" Fair question.
     But this one is about more than name tags and small talk.
     The place matters. The timing matters. And the runway matters.
     Because here’s the core of it: Detroit is already a serious player in air cargo, and the people behind DACA want to make that strength more connected, more coordinated, and more visible.
     To join, the invitation is wide open on purpose. If you work in air cargo, support it, sell into it, move freight near it, regulate it, screen it, handle it, truck it, broker it, insure it, teach it, or you’re trying to break into it, the message is simple:
     You belong in the room.
     One of the voices helping lead this effort is Peter Jaeger, the Branch Manager at EMO Trans Global Logistics and a DACA founding member.
     What stands out about Peter is that this isn’t a “big announcement from a distance” kind of leadership.
     It’s hands-on.
     Peter is building the association the same way freight gets moved in real life: by solving problems, making calls, comparing notes, and getting people aligned before the situation turns into an emergency.
     Peter has spent about 28 years in Detroit’s freight and logistics world.      That’s long enough to see the industry change shape more than once.
     He’s lived through the shift from paperwork and phone to data-heavy, time-critical global supply chains.
     He’s dealt with disruptions, regulations, capacity swings, and all the unpredictable moments that separate a plan from a successful delivery.
     And his style can be summed up pretty cleanly: say what needs to be said, especially when it’s uncomfortable, and fix the problem, while it’s still small. In logistics, that mindset isn’t personality.
     It’s survival!
     “DACA,” as Peter and the founding group describe it, “is meant to connect the full cargo ecosystem in this region.
     “Airlines, freight forwarders, truckers, ground handlers, customs brokers, screening companies, and service providers are all welcome. Not competing in little islands or camped out in silos, but building a shared table where information moves as smoothly as freight is supposed to fly on by.
     “The mission is straightforward: promote Detroit as a top-tier air cargo gateway, strengthen relationships across the region, offer education and advocacy, and raise the bar for how the local cargo community operates.
     “The idea is collaboration over competition, because when a region works as a network, customers feel it, businesses benefit, and the broader Detroit economy gets stronger.”
      Now let’s talk about why Willow Run is such a powerful setting for this launch. Willow Run isn’t just an airport with a long runway. It’s a symbol of what industrial teamwork looks like when the stakes are high.

     During World War II, Willow Run became the site of something that still feels unreal to say out loud: an aircraft factory about a mile long, designed to produce the Consolidated B-24 Liberator at a scale the world hadn’t seen before. That era wasn’t calm. It was pressure and urgency and deadlines measured in lives. And in the middle of that, Willow Run proved what happens when a region organizes around a mission.
     It wasn’t artisan work. It was assembly-line thinking applied to airplanes, with thousands of people pushing the pace.
     At peak production, Willow Run was completing aircraft with a speed that still makes you blink. It’s the kind of history that turns a place into more than a dot on a map.
     And for me . . . Geoffrey, that story isn’t just industrial trivia. It’s personal. My family’s roots stretch through this part of the Midwest, around Toledo and Sylvania, Ohio, with Michigan always close by.
     I remember the Michigan trips, the gatherings, and the log cabin my family built with Uncle Bill Kaiser from Saginaw and my Gramp, Franz Joseph Arend Sr. (both bow and arrow hunters) in the forests at Mio, Michigan on the AuSable River.
     The AuSable, where we used to take our canoe and fish remains today as it was 75 years ago, still beautiful and full of trout.
     In those early war years, with most of the men folk gone, my maternal grandmother, Flossie, worked as a welder on the B-24 line at Willow Run when that plant turned out a finished airplane every 63 minutes  or nearly 9,000 airplanes between 1942-45.
     Think about that for a second. That’s what “the home front” really means.
     Not a slogan, but real people in real jobs, building real machines under enormous pressure.
     Later, Flossie went on to build Jeeps back in Toledo, connected to the Willys Overland story that became its own American icon.
     So when DACA chooses Willow Run for its beginning, it isn’t nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.
     It’s a signal.
     The goal isn’t to recreate the past. It’s to carry forward the best part of it: coordination, reliability, and pride in what this region can accomplish when it decides to move together.
     And Willow Run isn’t only a historic landmark.
     It’s a working cargo location right now.

     It’s home to Kalitta Air, one of the most recognized cargo operators in the country.
     If you’ve spent any time around freight aviation in Michigan, that name isn’t new.
     Kallita Air Cargo began operations around 2000 with a small fleet  and today fields  a fleet of Boeing freighters and is piloting  a major global freighter operation.
     Detroit, you will recall moves the kinds of shipments that define modern logistics: automotive and electronics, medical supplies when every hour matters, on-demand freight when capacity is tight, and the steady flow of packages and mail that keeps commerce alive.
     Then there’s the geography. Willow Run sits near Detroit and inside a dense circle of major markets. It’s tied naturally into the Detroit–Windsor trade corridor, where cross-border freight isn’t some special project.
     It’s everyday business.
     That proximity and connectivity are exactly why the people behind DACA see a real opportunity here.
     Because air cargo doesn’t live in one lane. It’s not just aircraft. It’s the handoffs. It’s the truck move that has to hit a dock window. It’s the screening that can’t slow the shipment. It’s the paperwork that has to be right the first time. It’s the broker clearing it, the handler building it, the forwarder managing it, and the customer waiting on the other end expecting it to appear like magic.
     That’s what DACA is trying to bring into the same conversation.
     A middle ground where the whole chain can compare challenges and share solutions. Not to make one company look good, but to make the region work better.
     And yes, like any association, there are membership options, corporate, individual, even student.
     That’s the practical side of keeping the lights on.
     But the bigger point is the one Peter keeps circling back to: if we can get the right people talking consistently, the entire region gets stronger. And when the region gets stronger, everyone wins.
     So if you’re thinking looking at all the high profile industry gatherings that at times makes the nuts and bolts air cargo individuals feel like this business is a closed system, or a machine so big you can’t possibly influence it, this is one of those moments where influence is as simple as showing up, introducing yourself, and joining the conversation while it’s still being shaped.
     One more time with the details. April 7th, 2026, 4:00-7:00 pm, Avflight at Willow Run. The first event for the Detroit Air Cargo Association. A new chapter, starting in a place that has proven for generations that Michigan can build big things, quickly, intelligently, and together.
     If you want to find them online, search Detroit Air Cargo Association, or head to www.detroitaircargo.org.
     That’s our take on something genuinely good for the region and for the people who make aviation and air cargo run.
     Best of luck to Peter, and to everyone connected with this new association. We are with you all.
Geoffrey Arend