Corporate travel: Bush and beyond: it isn't easy flying to rural Alaska communities to conduct business.

Travel across Alaska is unlike travel anywhere else in the country. Going between Alaska's three largest communities is much like travel between big cities anywhere, but travel beyond Anchorage, Fairbanks or Juneau becomes another matter entirely.

Many companies, from banks to oil and telecommunications corporations, send employees into the more remote areas of Alaska-to promote business, to repair equipment, to build infrastructure and to provide community planning or health assistance. The State of Alaska, itself, sends employees regularly into smaller communities and remote villages.

STATE TRAVEL

Shannon Wiley, manager of the USTravel office that handles the contract with the State of Alaska, said her office has been making travel arrangements for state employees since they were awarded the contract in January 2005.

"Our office really has two parts," Wiley said. "One part handles the recipients of Medicaid-taking them to and from medical treatments. The other handles all other travel for the State, and we're really 'full on'."

Wiley said the State departments phased into using the contract to handle their travel. The first, or pilot, agency was the Department of Health and Social Services.

"They do quite a bit of travel, and it's pretty diverse," Wiley said. "Public health nurses go into many villages around the state. They helped shape our process with this office."

Most of the State's departments currently use the USTravel contract for their travel arrangements, but Wiley said there are still a few they're not handling yet. The Department of Public Safety is scheduled to come onboard in spring, and Natural Resources and Fire Prevention will follow this summer.

Wiley said her office plans quite a lot of very rural travel across the state.

LION'S SHARE

"About 70 percent of all the travel is on Alaska Airlines," Wiley said. "We use their EasyBiz program-an online booking site that Alaska Airlines offers to corporate entities. Every dollar spent earns mileage on behalf of the State department, so the agency can use those miles for future travel. The State also has a contract fare agreement with Alaska Airlines that was not available to the State before they consolidated their travel management."

Wiley said her office knows most every rural carrier across the state, and uses the contracts held by the State with rural carriers. Often, she said, travelers request specific travel arrangements.

"They need to be somewhere at a specific time, and they need to stay for a specific length of time. We try to accommodate that with the schedules of the different air carriers," Wiley said. "Our priorities are to accommodate the traveler's request, find the best fare, and to get the miles on EasyBiz."

"We do get a no-fly list," Wiley added. "It's a list of carriers that aren't up to code, have been shut down, or are not currently operating. We have had situations where we've had a request for a carrier on that list, and we can't book that ticket."

Mike Black, the director of the State's Division of Community Advocacy in the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, said he's traveled to 60 or more rural communities over his years with the State-ranging from Bethel, with a population of nearly 6,000, to villages with populations of less than 100. Primarily, he said, his travels have been as the result of a local government issue, to inspect a project that was grant-funded, or to conduct training.

"I've gone for a day, and I've gone for multiple days with overnight stays," Black said. "There are a number of issues you have to consider when you go into very rural areas. You really need to know who your air service is-do you feel safe with the pilot and the weather you're flying in, are you prepared to be weathered in and to stay overnight if you have to? You'd better not write a rural trip into your schedule with a pen," Black said. "You're certainly not going to be on a tight schedule, and you're going to need patience.

"When I lived in Dillingham, there were many days the jet didn't get in at all," he said.

KNOW YOUR CARRIER

Black added that one of his highest priorities when he makes travel arrangements is the history of the air carrier and the pilot.

"There are a lot of air charter businesses that go in and out of business," Black said. "I look for firms that have longevity and pilots with Alaska flying experience. Choosing an air service by cost alone isn't usually the best method.

"Once you've identified an air carrier," Black added, "it's a matter of logistics. Even if there's a scheduled flight by an air carrier into a village, that flight is still highly dependent on weather and on whether they've been able to locate all the passengers. Your flight could be minutes or hours off schedule, and sometimes you can be days off schedule. You have to be willing to take some deep breaths and hope for the best."

Black said he generally flies into rural villages in the winter, and weather was usually the most important consideration for the air carriers.

"If the pilot doesn't want to go, you don't argue with him. You know the saying: there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots."

SAFETY 'NO. 1'

Matt Dixon, director of Central Engineering Services for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, agreed.

"Safety is a huge concern," Dixon said. "Timing and availability of flights are important, but safety is number one."

Dixon said his staff flies all over the state, flying into and out of 227 villages on a regular basis. ANTHC works with the communities to build infrastructure projects-water, sewer and solid waste projects. They also build health clinics and provide technical support to hospitals and rural health organizations, Dixon added.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska's chairman, Kate Giard, said commissioners rarely travel into rural Alaska, but do make the trip occasionally.

"We'll probably be traveling into Egegik soon with a full squadron of staff for hearings related to telephone and electricity," Giard said. "So when we go, we take a relatively large number of people at a time. We have five commissioners, and sometimes we'll take all five, a member of the Commission's professional staff, and maybe a technical person to answer questions. Sometimes, we also take along an administrative law judge."

When several members of the Commission travel to the same location, Giard added, the State's travel office tries to keep them on larger planes, "especially, when we have several commissioners flying together," she said.

Safety is a concern, also, to the Alaska Air Carriers Association, said the organization's Executive Director Karen Casanovas.

"We were first formed in 1966 to address safety concerns in the business," Casanovas said. "We've been very successful at working to address runway improvements, lighting, community access, and avionics that should be kept in flight decks, among other things."

The Air Carriers Association has available an emergency response kit for their members, preparing pilots with information on the nearest airports, who to contact and how. It also offers educational seminars that include ground safety and accident prevention.

Although flight safety is of primary concern, Black, Dixon and Giard also stressed the importance of planning for village or community conditions.

"Usually, we'd prefer not to stay overnight," Giard said, "but sometimes you really need to be prepared to do that."

PATIENCE A VIRTUE

Preparation and patience are the two keys to traveling in rural Alaska. Preparation, in addition to doing your homework on the air carriers, also involves doing your homework on weather and travel conditions. Travel during the summer can bring hordes of mosquitoes in the Interior, or sheets of rain in the Southeast. Winter travel has a host of its own considerations.

According to Black, travelers should be prepared for snow machine or four-wheeler rides between the airport and the village.

"In Hooper Bay, the airport is more than two miles from the community. One time I landed at the airport and it was well below zero and blowing," Black recounted. "My compatriot and I were offered a ride on a sled, which we took. He knew to turn around and not look in the direction we were traveling. I wound up with the beginnings of frostbite on my cheeks."

Black also said there's a learning curve when you travel into rural Alaska.

"It's different from traveling anywhere else in the world," he said. "I'm often asked by agencies with less experience how we do this. Now, corporate Alaska is more interested in minerals, fish, or whatever, there's a lot more business in rural Alaska, and more travel," Black said.

"One other thing," Black added. "Don't take credit cards. Cash is always short in villages, so try to shop a little. There are always handcrafts available, and if you expect to repeat your visits, contribute to the local economy."