The rapid rise of the semiconductor manufacturing industry in Arizona is one of the main reasons Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is hopeful of securing Asian service in the near future, Alexandria Van Haren, Air Service Development Manager at Phoenix, told ARGS at Routes Asia.
“We have never had a non-stop service to Asia, so it has long been a priority,” said Van Haren. “Phoenix is the largest unserved Asian market in the USA.” Indeed, in the past, the airport has mainly been seen as a domestic market, but that is changing.
A major factor in Van Haren’s confidence that Phoenix will soon crack Asia is the huge inward investment from Asian companies in the semiconductor industry and supply chain into the Arizona region.
“There has been a long history for the semiconductor industry in Phoenix. With the largest engineering school in the US, we have a robust talent pipeline that churns out over 30,000 engineers each year,” she explained.
A catalyst for Phoenix to redouble its efforts to secure Asian service came when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced it would build two major semiconductor chip factories, which it calls “fabs”, in 2020. These are under construction and will create 4,500 direct jobs.
On 8 April 2024 TSMC announced a third fab to be constructed, which will make the most advanced chips in the world bringing the total investment from US$40 billion to $65 billion.
Foreign direct investment has also been arriving from Japanese and Korean firms. For instance, Arizona is seeing massive foreign direct investment in a variety of business sectors including LG from South Korea, which is nearing completion of a $5.5 billion battery production plant.
“This is why we are in Malaysia, showing the growth of Phoenix and talking about the near-term and long-term opportunities,” said Van Haren.
While it believes the market is ripe for Asian service, Phoenix is also targeting more service to Europe, where it is under-served, and to India and the Middle East, where it has no service at all, she explained.
A good piece of news for Phoenix on the European front is that Air France will soon become the first carrier to offer nonstop service between France and Phoenix. Starting from May, it will operate a Boeing 787 three days a week.
