Thinking of clearing
customs in Brandon?
Think again!
By Adam Hunt
The airport at Brandon, Manitoba is a popular stopover point for aircraft flying across Canada. It is definitely a friendly airport for small private aircraft as there are no landing fees there and fuel is available.
The airport is also listed on the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) website as an Airport of Entry (AOE). The Brandon Airport webpage doesn’t show any fees or other limitations on using the AOE status to clear customs either, but should you clear customs there?
When it comes to clearing customs Brandon has a unique situation in Canada and it could cost you a lot of money if you don’t know about it.
Before 9/11 Brandon was a Canada Customs AOE, but after 2001, with the change in priorities at Canada Customs, the airport was reassessed. There wasn’t a lot of trans-border traffic using the service so it was withdrawn and the Customs staff employed elsewhere in higher priority jobs.
The problem was The City of Brandon is home to a number of corporations who rely on bringing corporate jets into the airport from the U.S. and need the ability to clear Customs there. Diverting to Winnipeg for Customs and then flying to Brandon was too expensive and the companies might have moved their operations out of Brandon because of this, with the resulting loss of employment in the city.
Negotiations between the city and CBSA found a solution – sort of. CBSA could provide Customs service from the border stations if the city would pay for the cost of the transportation and the overtime for the CBSA personnel to get to the Brandon airport.
The cost would vary depending on where the Customs staff were when they were needed and how much overtime they would have to be paid, etc. The cost charged to city would be $450-650 per aircraft cleared.
The City checked with the corporations affected and they indicated that was a much cheaper than flying to Winnipeg first and then onto Brandon so this was acceptable to them.
This is all fine for the corporate users, who are willing to pay the fee, but the city gets charged the same amount for Customs officers to come to CYBR and clear a private aircraft and the city bills the same amount straight on to the private aircraft owner.
If the private aircraft owner calls Canada Customs and asks if there are any fees to clear Customs at Brandon they will say “no”, because they don’t charge aircraft owners, they charge the City of Brandon. It is up to the city what to do with the bill when they get it.
The city doesn’t have any way of spreading the cost over the other airport operations as they would be asking the private aircraft owners based at the airport to pay for the Customs fees, so they bill it to the person who cleared Customs.
This situation is obviously ridiculous, as individual Canadians and visitors should not be paying to enter Canada. COPA realizes, however, while this service is far too expensive for private pilots, it is of use to the corporate flyers who need it.
Complaining to the government about the charges for this service will just result in the service being cancelled and the resulting harm to the City of Brandon’s economy.
The best solution here is to warn pilots and aircraft owners not to use Brandon to enter Canada and clear Customs unless paying $450-650 is acceptable to you.
Small aircraft have several alternatives to avoid this fee for clearing Customs in the area including Boissevain/International Peace Garden Airport, Piney Airport, Coronach/Scobey Airport, Regina Airport and Winnipeg International Airport.
The Customs fee at Brandon is the only one of its kind in Canada at the present. COPA will continue to monitor this situation and try to ensure that it doesn’t set a precedent for the delivery of Customs services in Canada.
COPA has posted information on this problem in the COPA Places to Fly entry for Brandon and also in the AOPA/COPA Guide to Cross Border Operations.
It is hoped that the Brandon Airport will post information on their airport webpage about this in the near future as well.