Alaska Airlines Cashing in on Extra Cargo Capacity

Something special happened Friday in Galena.

A canoe was loaded onto a Beechcraft 1900 propellor plane and hauled out of the roadless village 200 miles west of Fairbanks.

Freezers, four-wheelers, snowmachines--Fairbanks carrier Warbelow's Air Ventures, Inc. can carry them now.

Alaska Airlines can carry more now, too.

Both companies have upped their cargo capacity with bigger planes. In the case of Alaska Airlines, new Boeing 737-400s, the first of which tested it wings Thursday. For Warbelow's, the new Beechcraft 1900, which was painted in company colors and put into service two weeks ago.

Warbelow's president, Art Warbelow, said Alaska Airlines is doing big things and his company is doing small things, but yes, the idea's the same.

A third carrier, Northern Air Cargo, will add capacity starting this November with the first of three new 737-200s.

Warbelow's new plane will join a fleet of smaller Piper Chieftains the carrier now uses. While the Chieftains are limited to a handful of passengers and about 1,500 pounds of cargo--be it flowers, bicycles, pizzas or couches--the new plane can carry nine passengers and about 3,000 pounds of cargo.

For now, the new plane is flying to Galena, Nulato, Kaltag, Huslia and Fort Yukon, with direct flights to the last two. Warbelow said Beechcraft 1900s will be used on more routes as things get sorted out.

Alaska Airlines works on a different scale. The airline will carry more than 150 million pounds of cargo from to cities and villages from Alaska to Mexico, according to Managing Director of Cargo Matt Yerbic. The company prides itself on getting a fish from an Alaskan tender one evening to a Boston diner the next.

The airline this year will ship 30 million pounds of seafood alone.

"It's every type," Yerbic explained. "It's crab, it's urchin, it's geoduck."

The 737-400 commissioned this week is the same jet as the airline's colorfully painted "salmon-thirty-salmon," but is outfitted to carry only cargo. The plane is part of a $100 million expansion and modernization of its cargo service and will be followed by another four 737-400s outfitted to carry both passengers and cargo.

Yerbic said the first jet--rolled out Wednesday in Anchorage, tested Thursday and made its first commercial flight Friday with 40,000 pounds of fish--won't have much impact on service in Fairbanks. It could relieve some pressure on the route between Seattle and Anchorage, he said.

But Fairbanks does stand to benefit this fall when the other new jets go into service and replace the smaller planes on routes to Prudhoe Bay and Barrow, he said.

Yerbic said Alaska Airlines is both answering an existing demand for extra capacity and looking for new business. By sending bigger planes to Prudhoe Bay and Barrow, the airline hopes to fill gaps left by changes in the bypass mail system, he said.

Alaska Airlines will face some competition this winter as Northern Air Cargo picks up its new 737-200s. All three planes should be in service by the end of the first quarter in 2007, according to Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dave Karp.

Karp said the move was about re-energizing the company after its recent acquisition by Saltchuk Resources.

Warbelow said his company, like Alaska Airlines, was responding to changes in mail service.

Over the years, small carriers have started carrying more mail but are getting paid less to do it, he said. Warbelow's has kept shipping rates fairly stable--despite rising fuel costs--by being more efficient.

A number of carriers have also closed or been bought by other companies.

"There's fewer carriers using larger aircraft," he said.

While the new Warbelow's plane hasn't lowered shipping rates, it could in the long run if it's used to capacity, Warbelow said.

For now, the larger plane means the company can ship snowmachines, along with lumber, barrels of oil and bulldozer blades.

And that's good for one important reason.

"There's no other way to get stuff to these places," Warbelow said.

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