Alaska Airlines Adds Prudhoe Flights to Boost Bypass Mail

WASHINGTON -- Alaska Airlines plans to create daily flights between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay, more than doubling its weekly stops at the oil field, starting June 4.

Alaska announced the change in response to the U.S. Postal Service's plan to truck Barrow-bound bypass mail first to Prudhoe Bay to save money.

Alaska Airlines will pick up the bypass mail at Prudhoe Bay and fly it the 200 miles to Barrow on its Boeing 737-200 "combi" jets, which have space dedicated to mail and passengers. Currently, Alaska and other companies fly bypass mail directly from Fairbanks to Barrow, about 500 air miles.

Last year, postal officials said the shorter flight could save the agency about $2 million a year.

Air carriers, including Alaska Airlines, protested the proposal. Several argue that the change will not save the Postal Service money and will degrade the mail service to Barrow.

Bypass mail is an Alaska-only program through which people can send pallets of goods, many perishable or frozen, from Anchorage or Fairbanks to Bush villages at parcel post rates. The Postal Service must pay far more to provide the service than it collects in postage, so it frequently seeks ways to cut costs.

Under Alaska Airlines' new plan, flights will depart Prudhoe Bay 14 times a week, up from the current six.

Currently, all six of the Prudhoe connections are to Anchorage, once a day Monday through Saturday. That means that anyone in Fairbanks who wants to take Alaska Airlines to the oil field must first fly south to Anchorage. The new schedule will connect Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay twice a day.

Alaska's weekly departures from Barrow will also increase under the new plan, from 12 a week to 14, according to the airlines' release. That's because Alaska will fly out twice on Wednesdays and Fridays instead of the current single flight.

"Despite strong concerns with the change in the bypass mail program, we are committed to serving Barrow and Prudhoe Bay with the most comprehensive schedule we can, while keeping prices consistent with previous levels," said Bill MacKay, Alaska Airlines' senior vice president of the Alaska region, in a news release. "The revised schedule reflects the deep commitment we have to serving these Arctic communities."

The new Barrow and Prudhoe schedules will be maintained year-round, the airline said.

Overall, while Alaska's flights to the North Slope will increase, they will become more "milk-run" in character. The morning flight from Anchorage will fly through Fairbanks, Barrow and Prudhoe before returning to Fairbanks and then Anchorage.

The afternoon flight will do almost the reverse, except it won't stop in Fairbanks on the way north, only on the way south.

Air carriers remain skeptical about the Postal Service's expected savings.

"It will cost them money. There is absolutely no question in my mind," said Bill Fowler, president of Northern Air Cargo in Anchorage. "We're still at a loss as to what the purpose of all this is."

Fowler said Northern Air Cargo will continue to fly cargo-only flights to Barrow, starting in Anchorage and passing through Fairbanks and then Prudhoe, where it will pick up the mail. However, the company will cut back its North Slope service to three days a week to make sure its planes are full when flying out of Prudhoe, Fowler said.

The Postal Service dispatches bypass mail to all eligible carriers equally. It must pay the air carriers a rate based on all carriers' average cost to deliver the mail in Alaska.

The extra spending to handle the mail at Prudhoe will increase the statewide rate base and therefore the Postal Service's costs, Fowler predicted. Operating in Prudhoe Bay costs 75 percent more than in Fairbanks, he said.

Postal officials could not be reached Monday. They have said in the past that some carriers may opt not to go to Prudhoe for the mail, so the rate base might not increase.

Fowler said he doesn't plan to back out of the business.

"We've got to stay in the game," he said. His company filed its new Prudhoe schedule with the federal government on Friday, he said.

Lynden Transport of Anchorage is expected to truck the mail to Prudhoe Bay. A representative could not be reached Monday.

Alaska Airlines has a facility in Prudhoe Bay where it can transfer mail from trucks to its planes.

Fowler said his company will team up with Carlile Enterprises Inc. to transfer mail.

Representatives of Fairbanks-based Everts Air Cargo--the other "mainline" air carrier currently serving the North Slope--could not be reached Monday. However, Fowler said he understood that Everts also would head to Prudhoe Bay to pick up the bypass mail.

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