FAIRBANKS—The U.S. Customs and Border Protection office has denied landing rights for a daily Air North flight next summer from Dawson City to Fairbanks, saying its staff of three customs officials can't handle the traffic.
The Fairbanks Convention & Visitors Bureau asked for "personal and immediate intervention" by Alaska leaders to ensure that the customs office can respond to any changes in aviation traffic at Fairbanks International Airport.
Lance Robinson, the Anchorage director of the customs office, said the Air North flights, intended to replace bus traffic, were rejected because "the impact on CBP's existing operations proves too significant to support the request as outlined."
The request was for a daily flight at 11:15 a.m. and a second flight two days a week at 2:15 p.m. The agency says Air North could land in Anchorage, where the customs office has the ability to process the passengers. That would turn a 266-mile flight into a 650-mile trip, doubling the cost and requiring that baggage be unloaded in Anchorage, cleared through customs and returned to the plane for the flight to Fairbanks.
"At this time, relocating the necessary staffing from any other CBP port within Alaska to Fairbanks is our only option and proves to be an inefficient use of our existing resources," he said in an undated letter. It was apparently written during the government shutdown last month, according to the office of Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
"The required personnel shift would diminish our enforcement posture affecting already-scheduled flights, vessels and land-border arrivals and significantly impact processing times for currently scheduled carriers and their passengers," Robinson wrote.
While the airline has appealed the decision, the news from the customs agency isn't going over well in Fairbanks. A briefing paper prepared by the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau raised the issue of whether the customs office would be able to handle the processing of winter charter flights to Fairbanks by Japan Airlines and the international charters next March for the Arctic Winter Games.
Murkowski wrote Oct. 10 to the acting commissioner of the agency to express "grave concern" with the staffing levels at Fairbanks.
The proposed Air North flights to Fairbanks are a central feature of the plan by Holland America to stop busing passengers between Fairbanks and Dawson City. About 19,000 airline passengers are expected throughout the summer. The 2014 tour schedules already mention the Dawson City to Fairbanks flights.
"The Air North flight would allow guests to spend more time -- perhaps an additional itinerary day -- to explore Fairbanks," Murkowski wrote.
She said her office raised the staffing question Sept. 17 and had reason to expect that the agency would not act on the Air North matter before allowing the congressional delegation to comment.
The customs staffing also has an impact on corporate aircraft and general aircraft arrivals. Corporate flights from overseas have to notify the agency by 4 p.m. Friday if they plan to arrive on weekends. This lack of flexibility has caused the company that handles 60 percent of corporate travel to note that there is no customs service on weekends, which could lead to a big decline in business, the briefing paper says.
In addition, general aviation pilots arriving from the Lower 48 have been told that they must arrive at Fairbanks during normal business hours.
"In the past, general aviation aircraft traveling the Alaska Highway through Canada had the option to clear CBP in Eagle or Northway, allowing them more flexibility when traveling to Fairbanks. Eagle no longer supports CBP, and this summer pilots were advised that arrivals in Northway were confined to a six-hour window. Given these restrictions, it is even more important that 24-hour entry is available into Fairbanks," the paper said.
Contact Dermot Cole at dermot(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @dermotmcole