British Columbia wants a piece of Alaska's air cargo business
Originally published Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 8:56 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 11:47 a.m.
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An airport in British Columbia, Canada, is lengthening its runways and adding maintenance facilities to try to attract air cargo flights.
Prince George Airport general manager Steig Hoeg said his facility can offer less expensive ground handling and airport fees than the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Alaska and will try to grab incremental growth in the air cargo industry.
A spokeswoman for the Anchorage airport said officials there are always concerned about remaining competitive.
“It is the No. 1 landed-weigh airport in the country and No. 3 in the world for cargo,” said Christine Klein, the Anchorage International Airport acting director.
Hoeg said it makes sense for some flight to stop in Prince George because they would use less fuel. Other fixed costs are cheaper too, he said.
“Our ground handling fees and airport fees are less, so we are trying to introduce cost savings on many different fronts,” Hoeg said
The Prince George Airport estimates airlines can save $5,000 each flight by choosing British Columbia over Anchorage.
Improvements in Prince George are expected to be complete in December.
“We expect to start the New Year operational,” Hoeg said.
Prince George airport directors said they not interested in taking over all of Anchorage’s air cargo business, but hope to carve a niche and offer specialized opportunities.
Hoeg said fuelers and ground handlers were in negotiations with airlines to stop in Prince George instead of Anchorage but he declined to list specifics.
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Goodbye Alaska as a air cargo hub. Can only imagine what this will do to this State's economy along with everything else.
It'll make the cargo cheaper because it will cost less to get it here, duh.
Anchorage is a hub because of its geographical location so I don't think they'll be shutting it down now, nobody is going to be homeless because some air flown cargo will get here cheaper.
I don't think that it's talking about cargo that is coming into Alaska. I think that it's talking about the refueling stops that airlines make when flying between Europe and the Far East.
This is a poorly edited article.
"landed-weigh"
"said they not interested"
I don't think this news is especially bad, though. Most of the landings in Anchorage are re-fueling stops and crew changes. I don't think they add much to the State economy at all, and their major contribution to Anchorage is probably hotel rooms and fuel purchases. I doubt much cargo, if any, is unloaded.
Anchorage’s air cargo business, that means cargo being offloaded in Anchorage (which is allot, obviously you don't know).
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