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At a meeting of the Great Falls International Airport Authority this week, board chair Sean Hoven made an unusual motion.

“As much as it pains me to say, I move that we accept being extorted and pay the ransom,” he said.

The proposal before the board was to pay more than $75,000 for office and IT equipment used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — costs that the federal agency had covered for years but unexpectedly shifted to local airports. In addition, CBP also requested nearly $10,000 in recurring annual service costs for the equipment.

Frustrated airport authority board members said this week that CBP’s message was clear: Pay up or you’ll no longer receive customs services and lose your status as an international airport.

“This is not a relationship between peers,” said board member Cameron Swathwood. “This is ‘meet our demands or we’re taking our ball and going home.’”

The board reluctantly agreed to pay for the equipment to maintain its customs service and international status, which have the potential to support commercial development underway atop Gore Hill.

For years, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol employees have worked at Great Falls International Airport to provide customs clearances for incoming international flights. They inspect baggage and other cargo, check papers and clear aircraft to enter the country. In turn, the airport is able to support international flyers (commercial and private), and on-site fuel providers get business from flights that make the stop.

CBP has worked out of a building paid for by the Great Falls airport, which leases the space from Holman Aviation, a longstanding business at the airport and one entity that provides fuel.

The agreement with CBP was that the airport would provide the working space, and it has been paying $55,000 annually to lease the building. CBP purchased its own office and IT equipment and conducted customs checks. That changed in recent years for international airports across the country, according to Great Falls Airport Director John Faulkner. His airport received the initial request from CBP last fall.

“We had been prefacing it since we got the request from CBP last October,” he told �ԹϺ��� following the board meeting this week. “This cost center is really going to be in the red.”

The request was unexpected. CBP decided to shift those office equipment costs to the airports and sent a request to Great Falls International for $75,582 to purchase computers, monitors, passport readers, internet equipment and related services. In addition, the agency requested $9,770 in recurring annual costs for IT network services.

The equipment may need to be replaced in three to five years, according to CBP documents. The airport will also continue to pay to lease building space for CBP.

Faulkner asked Montana’s congressional delegation for help and said he received responses that they would look into the matter. He sought assistance from the FAA and asked airports around the region how they handled the requests. All inquiries indicated that the airports had little choice other than to pay.

CBP did not return a request for comment from MTFP.

The airport authority board has discussed the request for months, often in frustration. In March, the board passed a new fee that’s applied to international flights that land in Great Falls. The fee, which ranges from $50 for smaller planes to $500 for larger aircraft, was designed specifically to cover CBP’s requested costs.

This week, the board debated whether to pay up. Board member Terry Thompson called it extortion and was the lone vote against making the payments. Board chair Hoven said it “reeks of overreach.”

“It’s not right, but I don’t think we have any other options at this point,” board member Richard Gibbs said.

The feeling among board members of having their hands tied came after airport staff sent questions directly to CBP. On May 15, a branch chief at CBP responded in a way that the board felt wasn’t constructive.

“We understand that the Great Falls International Airport believes the maintenance cost of the inspectional information technology systems to be exceptionally high. If the Great Falls International Airport feels that the amount of business clearing through the airport does not justify the maintenance of inspection equipment and personnel, it may request a withdrawal of its international airport designation…” wrote Joshua Manuel, the branch chief from CBP, in an email to airport administrators.

CBP appears to be asking all international airports to pay for its office equipment, Faulkner said. It’s a big ask for the relatively small Great Falls airport, where about 600 to 900 international flights land each year. For really small airports, the CBP request is not possible.

Cut Bank International Airport has had customs services for years. Airport operator Tom Redfield told MTFP that the facility had just 62 customs flights last year. Like in Great Falls, the Cut Bank airport provided office space for customs officials, and the federal government paid for office equipment.

CBP requested $66,735 in equipment costs from the Cut Bank airport and an additional $40,583 annually in recurring costs. It’s just not possible to raise those funds at the tiny airport, Redfield said.

“Our budget isn’t even $60,000,” he said. “It’s not much more than the $40,000, really.”

According to a document provided by the Cut Bank airport, CBP intended to install Starlink internet and charge Cut Bank for the service. The recurring costs in CBP’s request include $32,000 annually for charges related to Starlink, a satellite-based internet service founded by Elon Musk. 

This made Cut Bank’s annual costs four times larger than the request made to Great Falls. Redfield said CBP recently installed a satellite dish that may be related to Starlink, but he didn’t have more information. 

For Cut Bank, the international airport status wasn’t a revenue driver, but it also didn’t cost the airport much in the past. Rick Geiger, a member of the airport’s board of directors, said the expense was mostly to heat the building that CBP used. It was a service for international flyers who needed a place to stop, fuel up and clear the customs process. 

Crucially, smaller international airports help reduce congestion at larger hubs for these kinds of stops. Flights coming in from Canada can choose to land at the rural Cut Bank or Great Falls airports to refuel and clear customs without having to wait on the tarmac at a busier location.

Ultimately, Redfield said that Cut Bank won’t be able to pay and will likely forego its international status and lose that service.

According to the , airports in Havre, Cut Bank and Great Falls are the only Montana locations designated as international ports of entry. Multiple fee and staffing structures for customs allow other airports to still provide international services. CBP requests don’t appear to be limited to the listed ports of entry.

At Great Falls, there is an incentive to keep the international status. The volume of international traffic still creates an important revenue stream for fuel suppliers. It also makes Great Falls an attractive transportation center for businesses. Though regular FedEx flights to and from Calgary stopped last fall after the carrier lost a mail contract, they were a big part of the international traffic in Great Falls.

“That was the largest plane that served our community for 20 years,” Faulkner said.

The airport has been developing 300 acres adjacent to the airport as a light industrial area. The Peterbilt truck facility was a big first tenant, and other commercial sites are in the works. Having an international airport next door can lure in a big fish.

“If we can get a company in town here being so close to the border that would operate in the foreign trade zone, now we’ve got the agents in our community that would process that cargo,” Faulkner said. “It’s that potential.”

Without customs services, that potential is lost. That factored heavily into the airport board’s decision to pay CBP for the agency’s own office equipment. After replacing CBP’s office equipment, the airport hopes to retain some of the outgoing gear for its own use.

“The airport authority has never paid this much to renovate our IT,” Faulkner said.

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