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.
