MEETING ON TUESDAY
A special meeting of the Unalaska City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 6 pm will focus on the difficulty of travel to and from the remote Aleutian community, with no commercial flights currently servicing Unalaska and Dutch Harbor. The council meets at City Hall on Raven Way
Commercial service was temporarily suspended at the airport after a PenAir Flight crashed off the end of the runway on Oct. 17.
Since then, people have been stranded. Charter flights cost over $1,000 one way, and that’s only when the flight has enough passengers.
The council will consider making an emergency declaration, which would allow the municipality to temporarily get involved in contracting with air carriers, or finding some other innovative solution to getting medicine, fresh produce, and other necessities to Unalaska.
The Unalaska airport serves Dutch Harbor, America’s largest fishing port. Workers typically come and go by commercial carrier.
A Facebook group has launched to help travelers coordinate charter flights to and from the Unalaska/Dutch Harbor communities that are 900 air miles from Anchorage. Ravn Air is planning to start commercial flights the week of Nov. 4.
[Read: Regular flights to resume in November]
That runway needs a long overdue upgrade. It will be expensive. The hill next to the runway can be taken down and used to double the length to the runway.
The hill next to the runway is a partial cause for turbulence and wind shears there.
People stop serving us when we expect zero risk and make so much commotion over mishaps.
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