United Parcel Service, which uses Anchorage as its hub to the Pacific, is focused on adding more aircraft parking spaces, or "hardstands," to its 93,000 square-foot facility at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Aircraft hardstands run about $1 million each.

Ken Krom, UPS District Industrial Engineering Manager at Anchorage, told visiting journalists Oct. 23 that real estate is somewhat scarce at the Anchorage airport. Krom said UPS currently has six hardstands at Anchorage. The company's expansion plans in Anchorage are more "ramp focused," rather than "building focused."

As for its companywide fleet of 265 chartered aircraft, Krom said UPS is in the process of retiring some of its Boeing 747s (15 total) and replacing them with MD11s (9 total). That procedure is about halfway done. UPS also operates 319 chartered aircraft.

FedEx has confirmed that it will use A380s in Anchorage.

Regardless of how UPS might alter its fleet, Krom said the cargo giant will continue to have a future presence in Anchorage.

"You can gain payload by stopping in Alaska," Krom said. "We're excited to grow with Anchorage."

UPS serves multiple destinations from Anchorage, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul, according to airport documents.

UPS has 350 employees at eight centers in Alaska, with about 250 workers in Anchorage, including 24 mechanics. UPS started business in Anchorage in 1985 and expanded its operations in 1996 at a cost of about $7 million.

Companywide, UPS had 2002 revenue of $31.3 billion, according to the company Web site.

In Alaska, UPS officials are excited about business opportunities in China. Krom said China is turning out high tech products with cheap labor and high productivity.

"It's a very lucrative market," he said.

In April 2000 UPS won landing rights in China for six days a week. Those landing rights are "very valuable," Krom said.

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded UPS six of the 10 weekly landing slots in China with the provision that every flight must originate and terminate in Anchorage, according to airport documents. That ensures that UPS must maintain its Anchorage base in order to keep its landing slots active.

Peter Nieuwland, the night ramp manager for UPS in Anchorage, said the China market "has grown much quicker than we expected it to. So it's a very good market."

Kevin Pearson, vice president of business development for the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, said UPS and other freight companies are jostling for position to do business with Asia, China in particular.

"They see the trend with the movement of freight from Asia to the U.S. only growing," Pearson said. "They want to be in position to take advantage of that."

The growth of UPS and other cargo operators helps Pearson market Anchorage and Alaska in the Lower 48 and around the world.

"UPS and FedEx and Lynden really give us a critical mass of those type of companies that move freight," Pearson said. "Marketing Anchorage because of that critical mass is easier. Companies around the globe can see that we truly are an international airport."

On an average day in Anchorage UPS will handle about 30,000 packages.

In fiscal 2002 UPS accounted for $3.5 million of revenue (7 percent) at Ted Stevens International, according to airport documents.

Worldwide, UPS has 360,000 employees, 8 million daily customers and a delivery ground fleet of 88,000 vehicles.

Air hubs are located in Louisville, Ky., (main U.S. hub); Cologne/Bonn, Germany (Europe); Taipei, Taiwan, Pampanga, Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore (Asia); Miami (Latin America and Caribbean); and Hamilton, Ontario (Canada).

The journalists that visited Anchorage included Katja Gutowski, correspondent for Wirtschafts Woche, Germany's largest business weekly; Mark Arend, editor of Site Selection, a corporate real estate publication based in Norcross, Ga., and Joe O'Reilly, West Coast editor of Inbound Logistics, based in New York.