Kenai Aviation received their commuter air carrier approval from the Alaska Department of Transportation for daily flights beginning later this fall. The carrier will be launching daily flights from Monday through Friday starting October 3. They will be offering four flights a day between Anchorage and Kenai and two flights a day between Anchorage and Homer.
Joel Caldwell, Director of Operations for Kenai Aviation, told KSRM:
“We began the process late last fall purchasing an airplane that was specifically suited for that. We ran into an airplane that was perfectly designed for that for-commuter service. That’s our Tecnam Traveler. We got the Tecnam Traveler this last spring expecting to start our scheduled service at the beginning of the summer working with the DOT on getting that approval, but as most people have dealt with over the last couple of years in this post-pandemic world, the government is still, not all of them are going to work.”
Caldwell cites the corporate red tape:
“So, we’ve struggled a long process just mired in the bureaucracy. Instead of being able to start this scheduled service in May, we finally got our approval now. We’ve had the airplanes. We’ve had the ticket counters. We’ve had everything in place over all these months to get it launched and now we are more excited than ever to finally have our shackles loose so that we can start that service.”
Caldwell speaks on what sets Kenai Aviation apart from the competition:
“We’ve been in the on-demand charter business for 61 years. For my family, who’s been in aviation for 25 years, we have been used to the on-demand, which means we’re the flexible guys, we’re the guys that, when people needed charters, they had something going on, we’re the ones that they call at the very last minute to solve whatever their problem is when they need to get somewhere. When you take that skillet and that kind of thinking into the scheduled market, people are going to love the way that our team are problem solvers and can make things happen and be flexible. Even when there aren’t flights that we offer in our scheduled service, if somebody needs to go at other times, we’re used to that. We will continue to be doing the on-demand service alongside of our scheduled service. Your local airline is going to be the one that’s going to go when you need to go.”
Caldwell said that the schedule was posted on Monday for reservations to be taken. For the first week, reservations will only be able to be made by phone, but later this month, reservations will be taken online as well.
