An analysis by CBRE of the 20 busiest. airports for airfreight in the United States found that average rents for warehouse space within a five-mile radius of them are 18.8% higher than the average rent for their metropolitan areas.

The industrial real estate services firm explained that warehouses in close proximity to major airports are coveted by shippers who need to use the speed of airfreight to transport high-dollar goods packaged in small enough sizes and quantities to fit on airplanes.

It notes that supply of such warehouses is limited in many dense airport submarkets like those around John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport and Miami International Airport.

“The immediacy of ecommerce deliveries and the generally faster pace of business than in past decades, among other factors, have made airport warehouses a critical link in many supply chains,” said John Morris, CBRE Americas president of Industrial & Logistics.

“Rents for these properties will continue to exceed their market averages for the foreseeable future.”

The research found that the largest share – 42.7% -- of leasing activity in airport-warehouse markets so far this year was done by third-party logistics (3PL) companies. That’s a greater share than 3PLs claim of overall U.S. warehouse leasing, which is 35.6%.

The reason is that shippers, retailers and other companies often hire 3PLs to handle shipping of small-lot goods via high-cost airfreight, CBRE said.

The second largest share of leasing activity near airports was taken up by general retail and wholesale companies at 32.2%. Food and beverage companies are a distant third place at 5.2%.