Northern Pacific Airways, America’s newest carrier that is based in Anchorage, is gearing up for its inaugural commercial flight on July 14. The airline will take passengers from easy-to-use Ontario, California’s international airport to Las Vegas.
In preparation for the inaugural flight, Northern Pacific Airways has been conducting multiple proving runs around the West with representatives from the Federal Aviation Authority on board to ensure federal requirements are met. It’s flown its Boeing 757-200s from Anchorage to Moses Lake, Wash., and Ontario, Calif., where the company has its maintenance hangar.
FLOAT Alaska LLC, which bought some of Ravn’s assets during bankruptcy, is the parent company of Northern Pacific Airways, launched last month and has been flying proving runs with its Boeing 757-200 from Anchorage to Moses Lake, Wash.’s Grant County Airport and Ontario Airport.
The 757-200, which is a narrow-body aircraft can operate with a lower cost per mile, has a flight range of 4,000 miles, and can accommodate up to 200 passengers. The airline will be based in Anchorage, with Anchorage eventually serving as the one-stop fueling stopover to Asia.
As part of its launch, the airline has leased an area of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport’s North Terminal to serve as a passenger lounge, and has invested $6 million into the lounge project.
“As a new long-haul airline, Northern Pacific Airways plans to offer flights between a range of points in the United States and select cities in East Asia through Anchorage, Alaska. The airline plans to serve cities in the states of New York, Florida, California, and Nevada, with direct flights to cities in Japan and Korea through Anchorage over the Northern route,” the company says on its corporate website.
The inaugural flight still has a handful of seats available for those who want to be part of Northern Pacific Airways history. Check availability at this link.
Although the longer term goal is to fly to Asia through Anchorage, the airline will start with the Ontario-Las Vegas route due to the complications of international travel in an era of geopolitical instability.
The delay has been largely because of the Russia war on Ukraine and regulatory requirements that have been tangled due to the closure of Russia air space. As a result, the company is branching into charter flights in partnership with Air Planning, a large group air charter brokerage.
CEO Rob McKinney explains the problem with getting the Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards (ETOPS) authority needed in this YouTube interview:
The Ontario-Las Vegas flight starting next week will begin with one flight to Las Vegas every Friday. The return flights are on Sundays. Other low-cost carriers on that route are Southwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines, which operate multiple flights daily.
Alaska Airlines, which is one of the oldest airlines in the country, is based in Seattle. The owners of Northern Pacific Airways are based in California.
CEO McKinney has said that eventually 250 jobs will be located in Anchorage, and he expects tax revenues will bring millions of dollars to the State of Alaska.
