Ohio executives plot new airport, but GPIA scoffs. (David Brennan and group)(Greater Pittsburgh International Airport)

Ohio executives plot new airport, but GPIA scoffs

A group of influential Ohio businessmen is drawing up plans to build a huge cargo airport in Ravenna, Ohio, to serve as a transport point for goods manufactured throughout the region, including Pittsburgh.

The multibillion-dollar airport, still in the conceptual stages, is being touted by its would-be developers as a major economic generator that could save the region's manufacturing base.

But Pittsburgh air freight handlers claim the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport is capable of handling future cargo needs for the region. And officials at Greater Pitt, who themselves are building a new terminal here, are decrying the proposed Ohio competition as unrealistic and wrongheaded.

Still, David Brennan, chairman of the Berlin Group, a manufacturing holding company in Akron, Ohio, and leader of the group pushing the Ravenna concept, said studies of the air transport industry have shown the growing trend toward global markets eventually will require large cargo airports.

Over the next decade, Brennan said, manufacturers across the country will be focusing on delivering their products worldwide and will need an efficient, inexpensive system.

The large concentration of manufacturers in eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, he …