Elite Air Approved for Pie-Based International Flights on Weekends

U.S. Customers and Border Protection selected Elite Air to be a part of its Reimbursable Services Program (RSP) on March 3 of this year. The program allows Elite Air-managed aircraft to perform international flights into St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport during weekend hours.

Previously, Elite Air’s jets were forced to stop at Tampa International Airport to enter the country on Saturdays and Sundays. “This is huge for our owners,” Elite Air President AJ Becker said. “We love PIE, and its convenience is a selling point. This was the one thing holding it back.”

CBP created the new program in response to record increases in passenger and cargo volumes, which have outpaced the organization’s personnel and infrastructure resources over the past several years, resulting in increased passenger wait times and cargo backups.

Customer requests drive RSP partnerships, and Elite Air led the charge in opening PIE for weekend international flights. RSP can include customs, immigration, agricultural processing, border security, and support at any facility where CBP provides or will provide services. The program’s financial component covers costs like salaries, benefits, overtime expenses, administration, and transportation.

In the first three years of the program, CBP has committed to about 60 RSP agreements, providing 368,000 additional processing hours and handling 8 million more travelers than ever before. In the program’s first year, the added hours and lane openings, along with other passenger processing initiatives, helped decrease wait times in the air environment by an average of almost 30 percent, while traveler volume had increased about 7 percent. CBP continues to expand the program as the organization signs new agreements with operators.