United Airlines Signs Lease with Alaska CargoPort

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information contact:

Rebecca Allmon
rallmon@USA.net
The Lynxs Group
Toll Free: (877) 952-3900

Ken Lythgoe
ken.lythgoe@williams.com
The Alaska CargoPort™
(907) 273-3316 or
(907) 440-7818

ANCHORAGE, AK – United Airlines signed a lease today with the Alaska CargoPort™ that will increase warehouse space for the airline’s Anchorage cargo operations to 10,000 square feet and give direct access for wide body aircraft parking positions. The airline also has an option to lease four permanent wide body aircraft parking positions. United Airlines will move its cargo operations to the Alaska CargoPort™ in mid-summer.

United Airlines Cargo has a hub for its freighter operation in Anchorage and serves several points in Asia and North America from this strategic location. The new facility will provide much better cargo transfer opportunities for their aircraft and will allow future expansion with potential air cargo alliance partners.

“United Cargo is pleased to be the launch customer in the Alaska CargoPort™ facility,” according to Ron Lance, General Manager for United Airlines in Anchorage. “This new facility will give us the ability to provide a higher level of service for our cargo customers as well as the room to grow in the future.”

“We’re very pleased to have United Airlines join the Alaska CargoPort™,” remarks Ken Lythgoe, General Manager of the Alaska CargoPort™. “The additional cargo handling capacity will enable them to increase the size of their operations substantially. The timing is right, too, because we expect to lease the CargoPort’s™ remaining space by the end of the summer.”

“The Anchorage International Airport (AIA) is pleased that United Airlines has selected the Alaska CargoPort ™ for its expanded cargo handling facilities,” says AIA Director Morton V. Plumb, Jr. “The project is evidence of the important role the Airport plays in partnering to foster new forms of commerce. Global alliances are becoming the foundation of interline working relationships. That is why AIA targeted this market in its Strategic Air Cargo Marketing Plan and offered this key parcel of land uniquely suitable for timely cargo transfers, resulting in the private sector investments we see today,” concludes Plumb.

Alaska CargoPort™ Partners
The Alaska CargoPort™ is a joint venture between Lynxs Holdings, LLC and Williams Air Cargo Properties, LLC, a subsidiary of Williams Alaska Petroleum Incorporated. “We’re delighted to have United Airlines Cargo as our lead tenant,” states Ray Brimble, owner of Lynxs Holdings, LLC. “The Anchorage CargoPort™ was built for the very type of global cargo operations that United specializes in and will provide them with the most efficient and cost-effective transfer point between Asia, North America and Europe.”

Randy Newcomer, president of Williams Alaska Petroleum Incorporated, adds, “United has been an important jet fuel customer for many years and we are very pleased to extend our relationship with United in this way. The enthusiastic interest shown by United and other cargo carriers in our facility certainly validates that Anchorage and Alaska play an important part in redefining the role of air cargo in international commerce.”

United Airlines Cargo
United Airlines Cargo serves 28 countries and one U.S. territory on five continents from nine U.S. gateways. United Cargo operates four, DC-10-30 freighters, and an extensive fleet of passenger/cargo combination aircraft, including 35 Boeing 777s and 38 Boeing 747-400s, to meet the needs of the international shipping community. United is the largest U.S. combination passenger/cargo carrier, flying nearly 3.1 billion ton miles in 1999.

The Lynxs Group
The Lynxs Group develops CargoPorts™, which are unique air cargo facilities with intermodal access. These low-cost, high-service facilities are specifically designed to address the needs of cargo carriers and the airports that serve them. CargoPorts™ provide warehousing with direct rampside access, parking for wide-body aircraft, fuelling stations, office space and other amenities.

Currently, the Lynxs Group is developing and operating eight CargoPorts™. They are located in: Austin, Texas; Sacramento, California; Chicago; Anchorage, Alaska; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Houston, Texas and The Greater Los Angeles March GlobalPort. Major tenants of CargoPorts™ include all of the integrated carriers, plus select freight forwarders, ground handlers and combination air carriers. Ray Brimble, an Austin, Texas businessman, owns Lynxs Holdings LLC. The Lynxs Group is comprised of Brimble and his partners in each of the CargoPort™ locations.

Williams
Williams, through its subsidiaries, connects businesses to energy and communications. The company delivers innovative, reliable products and services through its extensive networks of energy-distributing pipelines and high-speed fiber-optic cables. Company information is available at http://www.williams.com.