Airports Speed Customs Process for Jet-Setters

The sleek Learjet ferrying corporate executives back from Vancouver touched down at Van Nuys Airport, right on time.

Standing outside a private terminal was Les Anderson, United States Customs inspector. He watched the plane land, then taxi back, without averting his eyes for a second.

With fingers stuffed in his ears to fend off the high-pitched whine, Anderson greeted the twin-engine jet as it pulled onto the ramp. A door of the plane opened and the blue-uniformed agent hopped aboard.

In less than five minutes, four passengers emerged, then quickly disappeared into their waiting vehicles.

Lickety-split, another customs inspection completed, VIP-style.

The local availability of customs inspectors is a one-year pilot project designed to speed private jet travel for the many globe-hopping corporate executives and entertainers who use the Van Nuys and Burbank airports.

“We’re talking about big corporations, like Dole, Litton, Disney, Arco,” said Mike Wittman, an aviation businessman who helped spearhead the project.

The intended beneficiaries of the service are not small-plane owners, but executive jet-setters.

“This is serious corporate business,” Wittman said. “These guys pay a lot in taxes every year. They employ a lot of people. They bring revenue to the airport. The customs service is just another nicety, another treat that feels good.”

In the six months since the program began in February, customs clearance has been provided to 131 private or chartered flights arriving at the two airports from other countries.

Of those, 94 landed at Van Nuys, the busiest general aviation airport in the world, and 37 came in at Burbank, which serves mainly domestic commercial flights.

Customs officials said those numbers are below projections on which the program was based, but attributed the slow start to the difficulty in getting the word out to fliers that they no longer have to land at Los Angeles or some other international airport to clear customs.

A reevaluation is expected within the next three to four months to determine whether the service will continue beyond the initial test, said a U.S. Customs Service port director for LAX.