Grant Aviation will add 50 flights each week between Kenai and Anchorage, starting around Oct. 21.
The additional flights between the Kenai Municipal Airport and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport will fit in for the loss of Ravn, which has discontinued that route, as of this weekend, due to financial reasons. Ravn also discontinued service to Aniak.
Grant flies smaller aircraft than Ravn, which uses Dash-8s. Grant has a fleet of Airvan GA8’s, Cessna Caravans, Cessna 207’s, Beechcraft King Airs, and Piper Navajos.
In a news release, Grant says it wants to expand the Kenai route, which is used by those who don’t want to drive the Sterling and Seward Highways, and is a route popular with oil and gas workers.
“This is a route many of our customers count on, so we are grateful to be able to provide more service to the communities of the Kenai Peninsula when it is needed most,” said Grant Vice President of Commercial Dan Knesek.
Grant Aviation is owned by Westward Partners, a Seattle company that invests in companies around the Northwest and Western Canada. Westward is also an investor in Three Bears Markets in Alaska.
Grant has bases in Bethel, Emmonak, Dillingham, King Salmon, Cold Bay, Dutch Harbor, Kenai, and Anchorage, and has scheduled air transport of passengers, cargo, mail, air ambulance and charter service. The company employs about 350 people and is advertising for a station manager for Kenai.
Remember Grant’s motto: “we can’t”
A motto they live by.
Is it sustainable?
Ravn was pretty bad, but nowhere near as awful as the 70’s/80’s Anchorage-Kenai airline, AAI, whose motto was: “We’re not happy until you’re not happy.”
So the Marxist Nine were running an airline between Kenai and Anchorage?
Well, history repeating itself.
These small airlines from the Bush with visions of grandeur. Grant is trying to defy the odds of repeated history, coming from Bethel and the YK Delta.
I wish them well, but I’m not holding my breath. Considering their fleet out here on the Delta is made up mostly of the old to ancient fleet of bankruptcy auctioned RAVN 207&208 Cessnas.
Bethel has a list a mile long of small carriers that found a niche and were doing fine, then some magical haze hit them and they just had to take another bite out of the apple.
Rest in peace Haagland, ERA, RAVN, 57 Villages on the Delta still miss you.
Grant has problems keeping the number of takeoffs and number of successful landings equal……
Rode Grant regularly between Anchorage and Kenai when I was employed in Kenai but resided in Anchorage. It worked out beautifully esp with my 4-10 Mon-Fri schedule. I kept a vehicle at the Kenai AP for a minimal price and had no trouble taxing to the AP by 7? And arriving at work on Mondays by eight. Because of their concourse location there was no time consuming security inspection prior to boarding. Small crowd traveling!! Never will forget arriving a few minutes late in Anch one time after the plane had already started taxiing. They quickly called it and had it return so I alone could board!!
I wonder if those Dash-8’s are not working out.
We went through UNK 2 years go for a funeral (December)
On our return we got stuck in UNK.
The weather was warm, light rain falling on ice; you could barely walk. UNK was a sheet of ice.
Bering Air flew us ‘to’ UNK, but none of those Dash-8s could fly out.
After being stuck in UNK for 5 days, w/ no Ravn planes flying, we took a Bering Air Cessna-208 back to Nome & then AK Airlines home.
Maybe those Dash-8s are not suitable for Alaska weather.
IDK … I’m just a passenger, but that was an expensive Christmas stuck in UNK for many days.
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