International connections: ANC air freight gateway: opening the door to future business for Alaska.

• Author: Stapleton, Rob
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

It's not an unusual day to see seventy or more cargo aircraft transiting Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport destined for international hubs. Despite Alaska's waning economy Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) is a predictable economic engine and a solid International transportation player with a future.

Recent conversations with Airport Manager John Parrott point to the possibility of attracting other types of value-added business to the airport's equation. This would inevitably include aviation related businesses adding additional services such as aviation maintenance and repair facilities.

Already attracting more than 15,577 airport-related jobs means that 1 in every 10 jobs in Anchorage is somehow related to ANC, proving that the engine is revving.

Money-Saving Stop-Over

Internationally known for its location some 9.5 hours from 90 percent of industrialized centers in the world, ANC offers a fuel "tech" stop allowing aircraft to trade fuel weight for precious paying cargo. Airport officials are proud of the ANC-based service companies that "turn" aircraft routinely in under two-hours.

"This allows each aircraft a quick turnaround near or at its halfway point to distant destinations," says airport manager John Parrott. "This saves carriers between $100,000 and $125,000 dollars per flight."

Some call it a pit stop for fuel at what was once the "Air Crossroad of the World," now referred to as the "Air Cargo Crossroad of the World." Airport officials recently coined the term "AeroNexus" to describe ANC's unique position in the air cargo industry. The advantage provided by Alaska's central location will continue to be an essential locus of connectivity in air cargo.

ANC boasts of five hundred wide-body cargo aircraft flights a week which requires timing and efficient turnaround times between landings and takeoffs. Other international airports use time slots for takeoffs and landings, creating a need for time-sensitive tech stops here in Alaska.

ANC has no slot (scheduled takeoff and landing time) restrictions or curfews and remains operational twenty-four hours a daysnow or no snow it has never been closed. ANC is a five-time winner of the Balchen Post Award for Large Airport Snow Removal Programs.

Boasting thirty-seven thousand wide and narrow body cargo landings and more than fifty thousand passenger aircraft landings yearly requires teamwork and timing. Serving forty-nine cargo destinations from Anchorage by twenty international...