Changing Customs

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, U.S. 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 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 foreign 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 pilot 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 LAX or some other international airport to clear customs.

In a random survey by The Times, several businesses that arrange international flights said they were unaware U.S. Customs clearance is available at the Valley airports.

A reevaluation is expected within the next three to four months to determine whether the service will continue beyond the initial test, said Thomas S. Winkowski, U.S. Customs Service port director for LAX. Businesses that serve corporate and chartered aircraft--called fixed base operators--petitioned the U.S. Customs Service last year to provide the on-site service. A survey the businesses conducted estimated that 476 foreign flights could be expected a year at the two airports, 301 at Van Nuys and 175 at Burbank.

Those numbers impressed customs officials, who agreed to the one-year pilot project. “We took a look at the survey and came to the conclusion that that is a lot of clearances,” Winkowski said.

Round-the-Clock Service

In comparison, only 120 private flights cleared customs inspections at LAX last year, many of those flights simply stopping there for the inspection before continuing to Van Nuys or Burbank airports, officials said. Most of the 350 customs inspectors based in Los Angeles are kept busy with the 7.3 million passengers a year who arrive on scheduled airline flights.

In addition to the customs inspector, foreign flights in some instances are met by an immigration officer if prior clearance has not been arranged, officials said.

Trash and food aboard all foreign flights must be collected and disposed of by another specialist, certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That step is designed to destroy pests and insects from other lands. An office for the pilot project is located in a largely empty, cavernous building leased by the Federal Aviation Administration at the south end of a runway at Burbank Airport, exactly eight miles from Van Nuys Airport.

With several hours of advance notice, the office provides inspection services around the clock, often requiring the lone inspector on call to report from home in the wee hours of the morning.

The concept of the pilot project at Valley airports is not new. Palwaukee Municipal Airport near Chicago--which, like Van Nuys, has no commercial airline traffic--has sponsored its own customs operations for three years.

The airport is business-oriented, serving as a reliever port to O’Hare International, said Dennis Rouleau, assistant manager at Palwaukee. More than 400 private flights have received the special customs treatment there in the last year.

Never to be out-classed, Palm Springs also offers customs inspections at its regional airport, specifically to accommodate well-heeled winter visitors from foreign lands. Although only 95 foreign flights landed at Palm Springs in the past year, the city paid the $80,000 annual tab for the service. Because of its small number of flights, Palm Springs does not qualify for federal funding.

A local customs service “is vital to the economic development of the San Fernando Valley,” said marketing consultant David Iwata of the Valley Conference and Visitors Bureau. He envisions the airports as a gateway from points around the globe, “opening the doors to international business and leisure visitors.”

Timing Is Auspicious

Aviation interests say the customs project is well-timed, launched just as business jet manufacturers roll out their new generation of worldwide aircraft.

The latest technology offers faster, more economical nonstop private flights from Europe, Asia and the Middle East direct to the Valley.

“Van Nuys and Burbank airports are not the same airports they were five years ago,” said Wittman, who recently opened Pacific Coast Forecasting at Van Nuys, which provides national and international flight planning and arrangements.

“We’re getting a lot of [turboprop jets] from foreign countries that can come here without having to land somewhere else first.”