# Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE)

> Cleveland, US · IATA: CLE · ICAO: KCLE · Large Airport · Cargo Hub

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `CLE` |
| ICAO | `KCLE` |
| City | Cleveland |
| Country | US |
| Type | Large Airport |
| Elevation | 241 m |
| Cargo | ✅ |
| GPS | 41.41170, -81.84980 |

## Description

Hopkins is not a place name: the airport honours William R. Hopkins, the city manager who pushed Cleveland to open America's first municipally owned airport in 1925. The pioneering streak continued with the country's first air traffic control tower in 1930 and, in 1968, the first direct rail link to a US airport terminal. Today Cleveland Hopkins International handles around 10 million passengers a year; United dismantled its hub here in 2014, and the airport has rebuilt itself as a strong origin-and-destination market. On the cargo side, expectations should be calibrated: FedEx operates scheduled freighter service and domestic belly space is plentiful, but large international consignments typically truck to or from Chicago and the East Coast gateways. The surface network compensates – Interstates 71, 480 and the Ohio Turnpike at the door, major CSX and Norfolk Southern intermodal yards in the city, and a Lake Erie seaport whose Cleveland-Europe Express is the only scheduled container service from the Great Lakes to Europe. NASA's Glenn Research Center sits directly on airport grounds. In July 2026 FedEx and other carriers signed a new Airline Use and Lease Agreement with the airport, which is launching a multiyear expansion programme including a new passenger terminal, after cargo volumes had already risen 7 percent year-on-year in February 2026. A field of firsts, now a dependable regional workhorse.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/cleveland-hopkins-international-airport-cle](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/cleveland-hopkins-international-airport-cle)*

*Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/cleveland-hopkins-international-airport-cle](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/cleveland-hopkins-international-airport-cle)*

*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/airports/cleveland-hopkins-international-airport-cle/llm-summary*