ANC Cabotage... Thanks Ted Stevens
 

In these times of furloughs at UPS and almost furloughs at FDX, I think it's time we should all take a moment and bow our heads to one great politician... former Senator Ted Stevens.
Our bud Teddy inserted a clause in a 2003 bill that allowed cabotage in air freight at ANC. Teddy said that it would help the Anchorage and Alaskan economies.
Now, instead of American flags on the tails of many of the planes landing there, we have Chinese, Maltese, Taiwanese, Nepalese, Japanese and who knows how many others. The freight is still moving, just on carriers whose pilots and their families generally don't speak English as their first language.
Sure am glad that Ted figured out a way to reconfigure the truth and sell this as an aid to the Alaskan and American economy.
So next time your at your favorite watering hole, raise one for good 'ole Teddy and his job to secure jobs for (non-) Americans.

Yep. Ted "the felon" Stevens is the guy who let the cabotage camel's nose in the tent. Cargo cabotage is here, passenger cabotage can't be far behind.

Wasn't he un-felonized?

Are you saying that these foreign carriers are operating intra-US, or are you troubled merely by the fact that they're landing on US soil?

Intra US.

They can all fly from anywhere in the world and Land in ANC.

From there they are now allowed to sort and trans load Freight and fly to any US Destination they want.

ANC to any US city is Intra US.

Intra-US. The deal that Stevens worked allows them to do one additional US leg after landing in ANC.

The reason CX and the rest park out on the R spots is that no cargo is loaded or unloaded in ANC. The only freight that is loaded in ANC on any foreign carrier is loaded on the way back to Asia on the CAL passenger or EVA passenger flights. As for Cathay, we only stop there as a Tech stop for fuel and a crew change.

There was a G-IV that was parked outside of the door from the ramp to the customs that had CAL on the side of it. When we entered to go through customs, there were two Chinese pilots and 12-14 others that looked like possibly young executives, in their street clothes, holding up the 2 crew lines. They must have been entering since they were finger printing and having their digital photos taken.

HHMMMMMMMMMMMMM? Is this a usual occurance? Maybe they, have big plans for the U.S. Do you guys at UPS and FDX have large sorting facilities in any other countries in which you fly intra? It's to hard to keep up with who is doing what when I don't work for a company and have an attention span shortage.

PtP

Yes we do have sorting facilities in asia but unfourtunatly we all are treated like mushrooms. We are ethier being lied too or kept in dark and fed brown crap all day.:rolleyes:

Actually, if you want to asign guilt, you would also need to include all who voted for this, and furthermore all those who presently allow it to continue.
Anchorage has always been something of a special case and along with a few other airports has been subject to special bilateral agreements over the years.

Please cite any articles which you think may provide a few more facts than your somewhat rash assessment.

Many of you may find this article more informative, although somewhat dated it makes some interesting predictions (some wrong) and also has a few nuggets of interest most probably do not know:

Air Cargo's Cutting Edge: Transfer Flexibility in Anchorage | Prokop | Canadian Journal of Transportation

That's what I thought. That is, that a foreign carrier bringing stuff into this country is allowed to drop it off in more than one spot. Nothing unusual in that.

Cabotage is something else entirely. Maybe the OP can expand a little more on the exact provisions of Sen. Steven's bill, and how they're affecting him personally?

Yep, not sure what the point is here. If Asian carriers are picking up originating Alaska freight and delivering to the lower 48.... well yes that is cabotage and a reason for concern. Haven't seen any evidence of that happening.

All those Asian carriers will stop in ANC regardless as it's a tech stop; and they will continue to the lower 48. Its not any different than Qantas flying from JFK-LAX to transfer NYC pax to AKL/SYD/MEL/BNE.. or United flying SFO/LAX-SYD and transferring LAX/SFO pax onward SYD-MEL. Its not cabotage in either case because tickets (and therefore revenue) is not being generated domestically.

BTW (for the OP) "Maltese" pertains to people from Malta, a tiny island in the Mediterranean; or a breed of dog. I doubt either is flying freighters through ANC.

I love dog bread!! Mmmmm tasty.

Soooo good with whine and cheese.. :)

Classic example of burning the furniture to heat the house. A few token ground jobs that he "created" in exchange for the camel's nose under the tent in one of the most crucial cargo markets for our country. Moron.

Of course many legacies sold their souls fairly recently for a few token Heathrow slots in exchange for significantly loosened US-EU rights. HUGE mistake tomorrow for a pittance of a payday today. Classic MBA move.

Yes, the conviction was thrown out for mis conduct by the prosecution. He was not a felon. Funny enough the DOJ chose not to re-try the case since he had already lost his bid for re-election.

Also, there are plenty of Americans working for almost every one of those foreign carriers that fly through ANC.

FO.

And that's part of the end result: If cabotage had not been allowed, perhaps those pilots would instead be working for American employers under American work rules with American labor-laws protecting them.

Give it a rest, the guy just died.

Ted Stevens, RIP.

Lets just talk about his achievements.

N455A, the airplane he died in:

Photos: De Havilland Canada DHC-3T Texas Turbine Super Otter Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Why do you assume that I am worse off working for a foreign carrier?

I agree 100%. Lock the thread and give it a rest. The former Senator has departed. :(

I agree.

His achievements includes pushing for and achieving cabotage. If we continue to talk about how shortsighted that was maybe it won't be spread by current and future Congressmen who worry about soiling their reputation. Call it deterrence.

You sound like Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers..."Lock it up!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IpHHtl8gC4

So... when someone dies... you're not supposed to say anything negative about them anymore? Therefore, no more negative talk about Hilter, Mao, Stalin, etc. either.

It is really unfortunate that you do not understand cabatoge and the fifth freedom flying rights. If you did and you are a parcel ***** and work for brown or purple then you would understand that your company is the only one short sheeting the system. You would decide to get less vocal and continue to hide your companies exploitation of the said rights.

Who's Ted?

Ted' dead baby

Not to disparage the dead or make any judgments on what happened but it is ironic that the biggest champion for the change of the age 60 rule died in a crash with a pilot over age 60. Like I said this is not any judgment on what caused the crash and we may find out that the pilot saved the lives of the other 5 on board the aircraft.

Sen. Stevens was opposed to ObamaCare. If he had still been in the Senate, we might not be stuck with socialist health care in the future :confused:

Well, if he had been more ethical, he would have been elected to make that vote. I'm certainly no Obamacare fan, but former Senator Stevens deserved to be put out on the street. I can say the same thing about a couple of more that are having "ethical issues" as well. I guess if I lived in Alaska, I might be a fan. He fleeced the US government out of billions....

Stevens pushed for over 60 pilots and died with one behind the controls. I have no idea of the cause of the accident, or if it was pilot error, I just find it very ironic.

What a jerk. I'm no fan of the over-60 deal either, but lets hope people have a little more class when you meet your maker. Karma's a bit&* pal.

I'm half that age and currently flying in Alaska. I've been on planes flown by someone over 60 quite a bit and never ONCE have I feared for my safety. I have, however, seen friends make some very critical mistakes that could have easily turned out badly.

I doubt very seriously if age played a part in this ordeal and that statement is very, very cold. I wouldn't sleep very well had I said that.

Sorry, I just don't have a lot of good things to say about the man. We entrusted him to represent us and he wasn't honest. I never said he deserved to die or anything of that nature. The crash was a terrible accident and I am sympathetic for the families involved and the people that were injured.

I'm not blaming him for the over 60 legislation, I think it would have happened without him pushing for it. I never said it was the pilot's fault, I was simply pointing out the irony. I have no idea what happened and I am, in no way, implying that his age had anything to do with the accident.

I'm not saying that negative things cannot or should not be said about a man just because he's now dead, but really, the body is not even cold yet and all this vitriol is out for the world to see. What he did is already a done deal. If you are really against cabotage, then express those concerns to your legislators - you know, those who are still alive and can do something about this. Whining on the boards is very unbecoming.

I do not plan to close this thread just yet, but I will if the succeeding posts continue in the same vein as the previous few. For a minute there, I thought I was over in Regional!

That's a low blow for a mod !

:eek:

:D:D

With only a PPL... ;)

It was a part 91 flight so the fact that the pilot was over the age of 60 really didn't matter. Even if the flight had been commercial, an ATP is not required to fly a turbine otter, just like the majority of commercial airplanes in Alaska, so age 60 legislation or not I imagine the same pilot would have been flying the plane.