Airline struggles to move salmon
ALASKA: Shipping plentiful fish to market just got more difficult.
The Associated Press
Published: June 15th, 2005
Last Modified: June 15th, 2005 at 03:04 AM
JUNEAU -- Seafood processors in Southeast Alaska are struggling to get a bumper crop of fresh fish to Lower 48 markets because of a dramatic increase in demand.
"Just at the time that there is interest in wild fish, we can't get it on the airline," said Tim Ryan, Sitka Sound Seafoods plant manager.
Shipping fresh fish has always been a challenge for remote Alaska, and especially for Southeast Alaska, where there are significantly fewer flights a day than in Anchorage.
Now it's even tougher.
"Fresh Alaska wild salmon is just really taking off across the world," said Matt Yerbic, managing director of cargo services at Alaska Airlines in Seattle. "We play a big role in filling that demand."
Between 7 p.m. Tuesday and 7 a.m. today, Alaska Airlines expects to move 120,000 pounds of the fish from Southeast Alaska.
As part of a much broader restructuring of the company, Alaska Airlines is phasing out its old fleet of nine 737-200 freight planes. It recently replaced two such planes that ran multiple-stop "milk runs" up and down the coast, with passenger planes that are more reliable but have slightly less cargo space.
In May, the airline laid off about 470 baggage handlers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and replaced them with contracted workers. The change resulted in frequent delays for passengers.
The company has ordered one new freight plane, with 33 percent more cargo space than the 200 series planes, but it won't arrive until February.
Also, the company is retrofitting four additional planes to a passenger-cargo "combi" configuration. The entire project costs $15 million, and the planes will be phased in gradually through next year.
That's little comfort to seafood producers who are trying to strike while Alaska salmon is hot.
"Our customers have said historically we have provided less than reliable freight capacity for fish," Yerbic said. "Everyone is out pushing as hard as they can. The demand has gone up dramatically."
The airline has even recruited a postal mail plane to help transport fish to Seattle this year.
"We're trying to enhance the supply chain," Yerbic said. "We know it's important to the state of Alaska."
Many Southeast Alaska communities are actually shipping 10 percent to 15 percent more fish than usual by airplane this year. Juneau is shipping about 30 percent more fish than in previous years, at about 20,000 to 30,000 pounds per day, he said.
"Frankly, we can't put enough capacity on some days to satisfy the demand," Yerbic said. "We are able to make it work on most days."
In Sitka and Petersburg, seafood plant operators are frustrated with the reduction in freight capacity, which is causing them to sell more fish frozen for a lower price.
"We've developed a strong fresh (fish) program," said Sitka Sound Seafood's Ryan. "But it's just falling apart." |
