By Kevin Lavery, WKAR News
(Lansing, MI) – (Lansing, MI) - The Capital Region International Airport in Lansing is opening a new federal customs inspection station today. The move makes the airfield only the second in Michigan to offer 24-hour customs services for international flights.
The 17,000 thousand square foot checkpoint will process passengers and cargo arriving on international flights. Regional businesses see the facility as a tool for penetrating global export markets, and to ship incoming goods faster.
Tim Daman is president and CEO of the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce. He says Lansing's central location within Michigan puts it within a day's drive half the US population. He says there are companies that are within that 12-hour or 600-mile radius that potentially could use this as a port.
Daman says the facility help ease the backlog of incoming cargo that often sits for days in larger hub airports like Chicago and Detroit. Instead, he says, the transit time for cargo moving out of Lansing will be reduced to hours.