government
Changing economy poses challenges for U.S. Customs
Sunday, June 22, 2008
DAYTON — DHL's plan to hire United Parcel Service for domestic air transport of DHL packages may have a long-term impact on how the government deploys its customs inspectors regionally.
Last year, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency decided to reassign most of its staff from Dayton International Airport to DHL's air freight hub at Wilmington, to handle DHL's brisk flow of incoming packages from foreign destinations.
On May 28, DHL announced its plan to hire UPS. That could end DHL's need for air freight operations at Wilmington by some time in 2009, since UPS has its own sorting and air transport facilities. German-owned DHL, which is trying to end multimillion-dollar losses in its U.S. operations, has said it hopes to conclude a contract with UPS within three months and begin making operational changes soon after.
The government has no plans to change deployment of its staff at Wilmington because it hasn't received official notification from DHL of any changes for that hub, Miles said.
Most of the customs staff of eight people at the Dayton airport remain there still, because the relocation of what is known as a port office is still in progress, customs spokesman Brett Sturgeon said. One officer has been reassigned from Dayton to supplement the previously existing staff at Wilmington, Sturgeon said.
There will be a renewed need for U.S. customs staff at Dayton International Airport, which is about to see a return of international passenger flight service for the first time in six years.
Air Canada, which ended service between Dayton and Toronto in 2002, plans to resume it July 14 with one flight that day and two daily flights beginning July 15, said Iftikhar Ahmad, the city of Dayton's director of aviation. That offers travelers from the Dayton region the opportunity to connect through at Air Canada's hub at Toronto Pearson International Airport with flights across Canada and Europe, as well as to Tokyo, Japan, and Sydney, Australia.
"They still have presence at the airport," Ahmad said of the customs agency. "They're going to have some more business to take care of, due to the Air Canada flights. When I contacted them, they told us they were going to be able to support us."
The federal government leased 8,515 square feet of space for the customs agency last year in a building at 642 Davids Drive, at DHL's Wilmington hub. The 15-year lease began in October 2007 at an annual rent of $230,000, according to the U.S. General Services Administration, the government's landlord agency.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or
jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
