Alaska liquor board weighs cutting $1,250 fee for carriers that deliver alcohol

Alaska's liquor board will consider Tuesday whether to lower the $1,250 fee airlines and freight companies pay for state permission to deliver alcohol, a change floated in a state review to make it easier for small air freight companies to sign up.

Since 2024, carriers have needed the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board's approval to haul alcohol to people in Alaska. They must hand each package to someone who shows ID proving they're 21 or older and signs for it. Package stores that ship and out-of-state makers that sell directly to Alaskans have to use an approved carrier.

The state lists 27 of them, including Alaska Airlines, Ravn Alaska and Dillingham Freight and Fuel. Freight handlers can also be the first to spot illegal shipments. In May, workers at Wright Air flagged 24 bottles of whiskey headed for Shungnak, a dry village.

The draft rule leaves the new fee blank for the board to fill in, and the board could also keep it at $1,250. In September, a regulation-review spreadsheet proposed $250. The review is part of Gov. Mike Dunleavy's order to cut regulations.

The application also asks for a diagram of each delivery hub, which was "called out … as a burdensome requirement, especially for smaller common carriers," Kristina Serezhenkov of the state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office wrote in an Oct. 27 memo. Staff found the form already allows a written description instead and asked the board to make that clearer.

If the board approves the draft, the Department of Law would review it before it goes out for public comment.