Northern Air Cargo Delivers Sizable Loads.

• Author: STRICKER, JULIE
• Position: Brief Article

Getting large and bulky items into Bush Alaska is this airline's specialty.

When a Northern Air Cargo plane lands on the runway at a village in Bush Alaska, there's no telling what might be in the hold. You might find a sled dog team, or perhaps a limousine. Groceries and mining equipment are a good bet, as are vehicles of all sizes, but don't rule out chickens, bears or reindeer. Northern Air Cargo has hauled them all.

The company's motto is "Anything, Anywhere, Anytime" and they do their best to live up to it.

"We've found out that if we don't maintain that service, we suffer for it," says Bill Lavery, cargo lead and acting station manager at Fairbanks International Airport. "Our main claim to fame is the service we've provided over the years."

The largest all-cargo operation in the state, NAC boasts a fleet of DC-6s and 727 jets that haul more than 100 million pounds of freight and mail annually. The airline is based in Anchorage, but has an office in Fairbanks and flies a schedule to 18 communities around Alaska, from Dillingham to Deadhorse, Kodiak to Barrow. Northern Air Cargo employs about 270 full- and part-time workers.

Service is the company's touchstone, Lavery said.

Robert "Bobby" Sholton and Maurice Carlson founded the company in 1956 as a charter airfreight service with two C-82 "Flying Boxcars." The airline built its reputation on its ability to deliver outsized equipment, such as generators and vehicles, to remote DEWline sites and mining camps. They made a point of being able to ship whatever the customer needed, regardless of its size. NAG also made general deliveries to villages, on a charter basis. And in an emergency, such as the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, NAC was there.

Along the way, they learned a few tricks about finessing bulky objects into cramped cargo holds, says Todd Wallace, vice president of sales and marketing.

"These guys are experts out here," he says. "They even take the wheels off certain vehicles to fit them on the planes. They know all sorts of tricks."

The villages NAC flies to are well off the road system and many are accessible by air only eight or nine months of the year.

"We fly into villages that have populations of only 250 people, and air is about the only way they can get their freight and their mail," Lavery says. "While we do maintain our schedule, we do sidehauls into villages for emergency needs."

One big difference between Northern Air Cargo and Outside carriers is the nature of the...