MID-AMERICA Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois, has finally welcomed its first international air freight flight since opening a US$7 million air cargo terminal in 2005.

This comes as a service from Panama operated by Centurion Airlines recently made a stop at the airport, carrying a 144,000-pound shipment of seed corn owned by St. Louis-based Monsanto, reports The Associated Press.

Airport authorities said it was the first of nine scheduled shipments to arrive at the airport within the space of one week.

The development has raised hopes that the airport will become an international freight hub in future, particularly as critics say that there was not enough demand to justify building the under-used airport in the 1990s.