Corporate Travel Alaska Style
Far and wide Alaska's business people take flight
By Nicole A. Bonham
The ease of getting from here to there in Alaska has never been so
effortless. With literally dozens of small and large air carriers and charter
companies serving all corners of the state, the breadth of Alaska’s frontier is
at times more a state of mind than logistical hindrance.
Even within the state, to simply meet a client, perform routine field work or
visit a satellite office typically requires crossing great distances. At the
same time, Alaska’s legions of government, fish and oil workers clog the airways
en route to the nation’s West and East coasts and Texas.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that corporate travel figures high on the
transportation industry’s barometer, with Alaska’s executives and workers
earning their wings with immeasurable time airborne.
Frequent Fliers
Say “corporate travel” in the Lower 48 and it conjures up images of
business-class snacks before takeoff; of suited travelers who promptly stow
their jackets and pull out a laptop; of airport-weary commuters who quickly
discard their pumps and wingtips for comfortable sneakers, a sleep mask and the
requisite bottled water.
In Alaska, the concept might be the same, but the traveler is not your average
“suit”–and is typically not en route to yet another crowded convention.
“We have corporate travelers on our airline–but with a slightly different look
than customary,” says Kip Knudson, general manager of FBO/Facilities for Era
Aviation Inc.
“For example, the regional airline routes serving Kenai and Homer provide
commuting transportation for hundreds of North Slope workers,” Knudson says. “In
the winter, this traffic accounts for up to 70 percent of our business in some
markets.”
Similarly, the corporate traveler in Alaska might be a field engineer, an oil
expert, commercial crab fisherman, Native corporation executive or rural medical
technician, according to Alaska aviation executives like Security Aviation’s
Mike O’Neal.
Security Aviation, serving a large segment of the state’s corporate travelers,
offers specialty service for business clients who need to get where they want,
when they want–with emphasis on safe travel, O’Neal says. The air-charter
company receives the highest ratings for safety by government agencies and
earned the prestigious Admini-
strator’s Award from the Federal Aviation Administration for 15 years of
accident-free operation. Security Aviation makes “safety” a key factor in its
strategy and, as a result, has developed a corporate client list that includes
the likes of the U.S. Air Force, Bureau of Land Management and FAA personnel.
For other companies, the corporate share of the market is a relatively small,
but still important aspect of full service.
“Realistically, I would say about 10 to 15 percent of PenAir’s passengers are
traveling on corporate business,” says Linda Bustamante, marketing director for
the Anchorage-based airline, considered the largest commuter airline in the
state and the last Grumman Goose operator in the U.S. PenAir services 36
communities in Southwestern Alaska.
“We have an interesting mix of passengers,” she says, describing her client base
as mostly local residents of Southwestern Alaska, followed by employees and
crews of the commercial fishing industry, then tourists and other corporate
travelers. “If you include government employees with corporate, I would add
agencies like Fish and Game, the FAA and the Department of Transportation to our
frequent fliers.”
So where are all these folk headed? Aside from the North Slope, travel within
the state is heavy to Bethel, Dutch Harbor, Dillingham, the Kenai Peninsula and
Juneau, agents report. According to PenAir’s Bustamante, that airline’s busiest
routes are King Salmon, Dillingham, Cold Bay and seasonal service to Dutch
Harbor from Anchorage for the commercial fishing industry.
Most out-of-state business travel is directed to the nation’s commerce,
political and industry centers.
“If they’re flying out of state, it’s generally to Los Angeles or Houston,” says
Kay Sherfield, manager of corporate sales and services for Navigant
International/Northwest’s Alaska operations. “There’s a lot of travel back and
forth to Washington D.C.” for not only the oil industry, but also the Native
corporations and railroad, she says.
Mix and Match
For every brand of corporate client, there’s a level of air transportation
service to match.
Marrying the two is the job of agencies like Navigant International/Northwest,
considered the largest travel-management company in the Pacific Northwest
region, with Alaska offices in Anchorage, Seward, Kodiak, Dillingham and Dutch
Harbor.
“The nice thing about Navigant is that we have a diverse client base, which is
great for us, business wise. We don’t have all of our eggs in one basket,”
Sherfield says.
She reports that over 75 percent of the company’s Alaska business is corporate
travel. Its operations mirror that market niche, with emphasis on providing
smooth customer service to the business traveler. Of Navigant’s Anchorage
office, nine of its agents handle corporate travel and four arrange leisure
travel–largely the personal bookings of its existing corporate clients,
Sherfield says.
Navigant often books the travel of Native corporation executives en route to
Washington D.C. and medical-services-related travel to the villages. Otherwise,
the company’s client list reads like a list of Alaska’s top economic players.
“We do a lot of the oil companies, a lot of the oil-service industry, and
oil-support (workers),” Sherfield says. To serve the fishing industry’s waves of
seasonal workers transiting in and out of Alaska, Navigant operates a “Fish
Desk” in its Seattle regional headquarters.
“We do, I would guess, about 80 percent of all the commercial fishing in and out
of Dutch,” she says.
Public vs. Private
From the local carriers’ perspective, flying public-sector workers helps balance
the more volatile business from the oil and fishing industries. A number of
companies–scheduled air-carriers and charters, alike–hold contracts with state
and federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service.
“We’ve been doing some flying for the FAA (Federal Aviation Admini-stration),”
confirms Sandi Saltz Butler, president of FS Air Service, established in 1986
and operating from South Air Park at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International
Airport. Though the largest share of the company’s customer base is contracting
the flight crew and aircraft for medical-evacuation services around the state,
FS Air Service once considered corporate travel an important client base–and
plans to cultivate that market again soon.
“I would imagine we are going to try and target the oil industry, engineering
firms and such. We don’t want to do it until we have the appropriate aircraft,”
Butler says. “Currently, we do have a Lear Jet that we could promote. But we’ve
been using that as a backup on our Medevac contract. We want to be able to do it
right the first time.”
Era Aviation Inc.’s Kip Knudson also points to diversity as the key for a stable
air transportation industry.
“The major sectors are energy, construction, schools, fishing industry, and
state and local government,” says Knudson. With over five decades of operations
history and some 1,000 employees nationwide, Alaska-based Era Aviation Inc.
proclaims itself the world’s “oldest, continuously operating helicopter company,
and one of the largest civil aviation operations.” With its fleet of 19
fixed-wing aircraft and 100 helicopters, Era operates a regional airline in
Alaska, the fixed-base operation Aviation Center in Anchorage and a
Louisiana-based Gulf Coast helicopter contract servicing offshore oil
exploration and production facilities.
“...The only stable market is government and schools. Era has seen all the
others ebb and flow, and has adjusted inventory to match those changes.”
Flying Machine
While it is nowadays possible, and even reasonably convenient, to quickly get
from Point A to Point B in Alaska, the process can involve a network of carriers
offering niche services from first-class to charter service.
“If clients are going to, say, the villages, they’re usually flying on Alaska
Airlines or Pen Air or Era (Aviation) to Bethel, for example,” says Sherfield.
“Then they’ll connect to Hageland (Aviation Services Inc.) and fly out to
villages.” For the booking agent, that means providing a segmented
travel-solution that could involve legs on a major passenger airline, regional
carrier and smaller non-scheduled or charter service.
For primary, scheduled passenger service, Seattle-based Alaska Airlines
dominates the major air routes in Alaska, with 20 flights daily from Seattle to
its namesake state and passenger service to nearly 20 local communities. For
nearly the past three decades, Alaska Airlines has led the passenger market for
flights from Alaska to the Lower 48, according to the company. Alaska Airlines
also provides connecting service to a number of local alliance partners
including Era Aviation and PenAir and flies to six international destinations.
Other major U.S. carriers serving the 49th state include Delta Airlines,
Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines. Foreign-based
carriers historically offering passenger service to Alaska include Cathay
Pacific Airways, China Airlines, Asiana Airlines and Korean Airlines.
A fleet of regional air carriers rounds out the scheduled air-service map,
operating in a scattering of mid- and small-sized communities across the state.
A sampling of industry leaders includes: Era Aviation, serving Anchorage,
Cordova, Whitehorse, Homer, Iliamna, Kenai, Kodiak, Valdez and 17 western Alaska
villages; PenAir, flying to 36 communities in Southwestern Alaska; Frontier
Flying Service Inc., with its expansive route map across the Arctic, Interior
and Southcentral; Nome-based Bering Air and its scheduled flights to 32 western
Alaska villages; Southeast’s Promech Air and its scheduled service to Prince of
Wales Island; and many others.
Non-scheduled carriers and charter companies like Security Aviation and others
round out the air-travel network in Alaska. Many of the regional airlines also
provide charter service throughout Alaska, Canada, the Lower 48 and Russian Far
East.
Noteworthy in the market is Nothwestern Arctic Air. This company can provide
charter service anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. Providing both
first-class and cargo service, management says it will provide flight request
without delay.
“Northwestern Arctic Air’s pilots and crew have considerable experience in all
types of Arctic conditions and routinely traverse rugged northern terrain,”
state’s the company’s Web site. “Our Anchorage-based aircraft are equipped to
handle gravel runway operations. We stand ready to provide all of the attention
to detail required to ensure your flight is timely, comfortable and perfectly
executed. Our crews have extensive experience throughout Alaska, the continental
U.S., Russia, Europe, as well as the Middle East and Far East.”
Support Contracts
The corporate travel industry in Alaska includes more than just the actual
booking and flying. To further stabilize and diversify their interests, many
travel-related companies have sought out variations on the traditional client
account.
“Our most pure corporate travel operation is actually the Era Aviation Center,
our fixed-base operation,” Knudson says. “This part of our business services
(locally) based and transient corporate jets. We currently provide hangar space
for nine corporate aircraft, and provide fuel and other ground services to over
2,000 corporate flights each year.”
The bulk of the transient business stems from aircraft stops in Anchorage for
technical crews and fuel en route to and from Asia–a growing market, he says.
“Despite the slow Asian economy and a slowing U.S. economy, this Asia traffic
has continued to increase,” according to Knudson.
The company also has seen growth on the locally based corporate aircraft scene.
“Alaska-based jets and turboprops are on the rise as well, due to a variety of
factors including convenience, time-savings and security,” he says. “Our based
aircraft are owned or operated by banks, telecommunication companies, insurance
companies, construction and energy companies, and private individuals.”
Similarly, F.S. Air Service has found a comfortable niche providing on-demand
charter service and contract medical-evacuation support. “Prior to 1998, we did
a lot of corporate flying, government work,” says Butler, who co-founded the
company in 1986. “In 1998, we made a change and decided to go a different
direction with the business. So that’s when we got into the medevac,” which now
constitutes some 80 percent of its business. For over a decade, F.S. Air also
has provided in-state charter services for FedEx and UPS.
FS Air Service holds contracts with both Alaska Regional Hospital and the Alaska
Native Tribal Health Consortium/Aeromed International. “We’re the provider for
the aircraft, as well as for the pilots,” Butler says. The company operates nine
aircraft and flew 5,836 hours last year.
The medical market has proven equally sound at the opposite end of contract
travel–the booking agent. Case in point: Navigant International/Northwest
processes much of the state’s Medicaid-related patient travel, making the
various hospitals and Medicaid providers among its strongest client base.
“We do probably about 80 percent of all the Medicaid travel in the state,”
Sherfield says. “Hospitals, for example, go through various state agencies and
have particular procedures when they have to book patient travel. It’s fairly
complicated and that’s why a lot of people don’t like to do it, because there is
a lot of paperwork involved. But that’s a very good niche for us.”
Against the Grain
Yet again, Alaska tested its mettle against a national economic trend, holding
true to the adage that “as the nation’s economy goes,” Alaska goes … well, if
not opposite, at least differently.
It’s been more than a half year since the disaster of Sept. 11 rocked the
nation’s airline industry to its core, and Alaska has seemingly weathered the
fall with remarkable grace. Business travel within the state remains strong,
agents say. And the Alaska air industry enters its 2002 summer season with a
continued healthy variety of options for the corporate traveler.
“I would say, ‘No,’ the impact was not as severe as in the Lower 48,” Sherfield
says. “We saw a decrease in business here in Alaska. It did not, however, last
as long as it did in our Lower 48 offices. We were insulated somewhat.
“I think the corporate business in Alaska is very much relationship-driven, so
the options many companies put into place–like teleconferencing versus making an
actual business trip–were not as viable for business here.”
