ANC fights to preserve cargo transit hub amid COVID-19 demands

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport ( ANC ) is taking action to preserve its transit-hub functions as demand for cargo booms at the airport in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alaskan Governor Mike Dunleavy on March 12 announced that the first case of the novel coronavirus in Alaska is a pilot who flew into ANC as part of a cargo airline crew. ANC followed the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) protocols for handling the case and the pilot had very limited contact and has stayed isolated from others since the case was confirmed, according to local Alaskan news reports. However, there have been local calls for the airport to potentially restrict transit flights through Anchorage and take stronger preventative measures to protect the public. ANC Airport Director Jim Szczesniak told Air Cargo World that the airport is implementing precautions such as targeting each link in the chain of custody for pilots to ensure they are safe, and securing them from any interactions with the general public. This includes mitigating contact between pilots, ground crew, transportation companies and hotels. Any pilots coming into ANC internationally must submit to CDC protocol, and the airport has CDC screening, quarantine facilities and officials on site. ANC is also providing extensive training to support industries, like ground transportation companies for pilots, in cooperation with the state Department of Health to ensure procedures are solid across the chain of operations. Additionally, ANC’s domestic terminal is completely isolated from international cargo operations, allowing for a separation from the general public, though the airport is also implementing additional cleaning across all terminals to mitigate health risks. Despite the numerous government restrictions, Szczesniak said the airport sees a lot of the cargo airlines taking action “way above and beyond” the requirements to ensure the health of their employees. “Crews are the airlines’ most precious asset right now, so they are hyper focused on making sure their crews are safe and healthy and we appreciate that,” he said. In terms of traffic, Szczesniak says ANC is very busy with the increase in trans-Pacific traffic, adding that the freighters are “chock-full” of goods right now. At 10 a.m. ADT on March 20, there were 71 freighters, many coming from the Asia-Pacific region, in the air flying to ANC, according to Szczesniak. This is a jump from the daily average of 75 widebody aircraft, or 150 widebody cargo operations, into and out of ANC, the airport sees, according to Trudy Wassel, ANC airport division operations manager. This jump in freighter demand is driven by both the reduction of belly capacity available, as well as the fact that many Chinese factories are coming back online after their hiatus during Lunar New Year and China’s efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Many of the goods on flights include medical supplies, as well as shipments of clothing, and automotive and machine parts and valves originally intended for sea transport. Due to factory slowdowns, these products have been pushed onto aircraft as shippers compete to fulfill orders. Beyond traffic from freighters transiting from Asia onto other destinations in the U.S., Szczesniak said ANC is also seeing strong flows of intra-Alaska cargo operations. “Panic-buying is going on all over the country and Alaska is no different,” he said. “Three days of supplies are being soaked up quickly, so freighters are adding additional lift to be able to restock everything.”

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