Moving oversized Cargo in Alaska: whether you are moving a house to Aniak or construction equipment to Prudhoe Bay, there are transportation companies in Alaska able and willing to get the job done.

• Author: Morgan, Barbara
• Position: Large scheduled air carriers in Alaska

Moving cargo of all different sizes and shapes is just part of everyday business for the many companies in the industry in Alaska who handle customer requests for 10-story-high modules weighing 60,000 tons. When big, chunky, oversized cargo needs to be moved, it's almost always for energy and mining companies.

An over-dimensional load could be anything longer than 50 feet, wider than 9 feet, with a height more than 13 feet. A full-service logistics company will offer transportation by air, rail, road or water.

AIR TRANSPORTATION

The large scheduled air carriers in Alaska include Alaska Airlines, Lynden Air Cargo, Northern Air Cargo and Everts Air Cargo. These airlines have hauled aircraft engines to Seattle and turbines to Prudhoe Bay oil fields.

Alaska Airlines regularly flies horses (usually north in the spring and south win in the fall). The horse stall, specially built for Alaska Airlines, goes on the plane in the cargo area. Beside horses, some of the most interesting cargo Alaska Airlines deals with include whalebones, fish, otters, bears, eagles, walruses, seals and llamas. Alaska Airlines flies I million bees to Alaska in the spring from Seattle, says Supervisor of Cargo Operations Larry Fulton.

Lynden's Hercules aircraft is able to land on relatively short, unimproved runways, which makes it especially useful in hauling oversized equipment and materials to the Bush. Lynden Air Cargo has moved dump trucks, tractors, loaders, trailers and other heavy equipment, as well as bundles of building materials, pipe, insulation or drive-on/drive-off vehicles and machinery of all kinds.

These airlines and their customers often transfer the loads to smaller cargo airlines, like Village Air Cargo, to make the final freight deliveries to Alaska's most remote locations.

Village Air Cargo's fleet includes CASA C-212 aircraft, with a cargo compartment measuring 20 feet in length. If a customer needs a shipment of 25 feet of arctic pipe, the aircraft can fly with the rear loading ramp open in some cases. Height reaches 85 inches in the aircraft. Village Air Cargo's CASA aircraft provide simplified loading capability with a large aft cargo door and ramp. Some customers take parts off extra large equipment to fit them in the aircraft and then reassemble them after delivery.

Village Air Cargo can fly small drilling rigs, 5,000-pound generators or snow machines. A small car can fit in the back of the twin-engine CASA.

The types of aircraft that can operate to rural Alaska require special capabilities and comply with the highest safety standards. The Spanish-built CASA is equipped to carry as much as 5,290...