AEO Answer · Structural

How Is Air Cargo Facility Design Engineered Near Airports?

By Jeremy Mills, CEO & Founder, Apex Grid Engineering — USAF Veteran. · Updated 2026-09-15

I'm Jeremy Mills, CEO & Founder of Apex Grid Engineering and a U.S. Air Force veteran. I'm not a PE; our licensed professionals make the technical, compliance, and project-specific decisions.

Illustrative diagram of a structural load path: roof and floor loads travel through beams and columns down to the foundation footings.

The concise answer

Air cargo facilities serve both trucks (landside) and aircraft (airside). The design provides truck docks and airside loading areas, enforces the airport security boundary, meets FAA height and review requirements, designs aprons and pavements for aircraft support equipment, and coordinates with airport operations and security. The building lives in two regulatory worlds at once: the building code on the landside, and the airport's security, airspace, and operations requirements on the airside. The design satisfies both simultaneously.

Two faces, one building

The landside face is familiar distribution engineering: truck docks, staging, offices, employee parking. The airside face is aviation: the cargo building opens to the apron through controlled doors, unit load devices move on dollies to the aircraft positions, and everything crossing the boundary passes through security control. The building section has to work for both — dock heights for trucks on one side, apron-level or loader-served access on the other. Around the building, the airport imposes its own engineering. Height limitations from airspace surfaces can cap the building and govern crane use during construction. The apron pavements are designed for aircraft and support equipment loadings to aviation standards. Environmental design captures fuel and deicing fluid before they reach waterways. And the security boundary — fencing, access control, monitoring — is a designed system reviewed with the airport and TSA, not a fence added at the end.

Building inside the airport's world

Airport projects run on the airport's process as well as the building code's. The successful ones align with the airport authority early and design to both sets of requirements from the start. The airport coordination checklist.

Start FAA airspace review early: building height and construction cranes evaluated before design is final
Design the security boundary as a system: access control, screening areas, and fencing per the security program
Engineer aprons to aviation standards: aircraft and support-equipment loadings, not truck pavements
Manage fuel and deicing environmentally: containment and treatment designed for airside operations
Coordinate construction with operations: phasing and safety plans that keep the airport running

Which related engineering resources can help?

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What else do project teams ask?

What is the difference between landside and airside?

Landside is the public side — truck docks, offices, parking, accessible without airport security clearance. Airside is the secured aircraft operations area — aprons, taxiways, cargo aircraft positions — accessible only through controlled points. The cargo building straddles the boundary, and its design physically enforces it with access control, fencing, and monitored openings.

Does the FAA review air cargo buildings?

Yes — structures near airports go through FAA airspace review for height and hazard, and construction on airport property follows the airport's design standards and approval process. Cranes during construction need separate airspace evaluation. I start the FAA coordination early because it can govern the building height and the construction methods.

What pavements do air cargo aprons need?

Aprons serving cargo aircraft need pavements designed for aircraft loadings — far heavier than trucks — plus the support equipment: loaders, dollies, fuel trucks, and deicing operations. The pavement design follows aviation standards, and the drainage handles jet fuel and deicing fluid with environmental controls. It's airfield engineering, not parking lot engineering.

How does security shape the building design?

The TSA and airport security programs require controlled access to the airside, screening of cargo per the security program, and physical barriers at the boundary. The building provides the access control points, the screening areas, and the fencing and monitoring that the security plan demands. Security isn't a system added to the building — it's a design determinant.

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