Casper / Natrona County International Airport announced that it will be holding an open house and dedication for the new U.S. Customs and Border Protection General Aviation Facility (GAF) on Aug. 14. The open house will start at 11:30 a.m. and end at 1:30 p.m. The dedication of the facility will be at noon. In attendance and scheduled to speak at the dedication are: Gov. Matt Mead, Senator John Barrasso, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Area Port Director LaShanda Jones, and Airport Board of Trustees President Tim Monroe.
The architects for the project were Hein | Bond and the general contractor was Pope Construction. The Wyoming Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division and Airport paid for the facility which is operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The new facility is 2,540 square feet in size and replaces a single office, 225 square foot facility. The new facility is located on the south end of the terminal building, 8500 Airport Parkway. It includes a new passenger entry vestibule for passengers arriving by aircraft for processing, a 27-passenger waiting area, passenger processing area, new restrooms, offices, an interview room, search room, hold room, and IT room. The project also included a new public entry into the south end of the terminal building.
The Casper Customs facility clears between 450 and 500 aircraft that arrive internationally each year. While most aircraft arrive from Canada, over the past few years aircraft have also arrived from: Austria, Bahamas, Bermuda, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, St. Kitts, Switzerland, and Turks and Caicos.
Customs operations in Wyoming allow international companies doing business in Natrona County to land here, clear Customs, and conduct their business, or for other locations in Wyoming, to clear Customs here and then depart to other parts of the State. Without Customs in Wyoming, these companies would have to clear Customs in another State which would cost them time and money. Sometimes what is being cleared is not people. Companies clearing Customs have flown in replacement parts for an oil or gas rig that has allowed operations to resume quicker.
The Customs and Border Protection facility is the only international port of entry in Wyoming. This operation is also required to support Foreign Trade Zone 157 which was recently expanded to cover the majority of Natrona County.
