The City of Kenai was not awarded a Federal Aviation Administration grant aimed at drawing major airlines to the Kenai Municipal Airport. In July, the Kenai City Council passed a joint resolution with the Kenai Peninsula Borough, as well as the cities of Soldotna, Seward, Homer, Seldovia, and Kachemak.
According to Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank, the city was notified that they were passed over for the grant late last week. “[The] Small Community Air Service Development Grant awards were named [last week]. The city wasn’t one of them,” said Eubank at the Nov. 6 city council meeting. “We have a meeting scheduled next week with our consultant about what our next steps are.”
The consultant, Jack Penning, a representative of Volaire Aviation Consulting, presented to the council in June on the potential for the Kenai Municipal Airport to host major airline direct flights between Kenai and Seattle.
Volaire’s study showed that the vast majority of those flying to Anchorage from Kenai are flying beyond Alaska’s largest city. “95% of your passengers that fly out of this airport are buying two tickets. When they leave or come back, they’re buying 1 ticket to Anchorage and another ticket from Anchorage to wherever they’re going,” said Penning during the city council meeting in June.
Eubank said that the city was most likely passed over for the grant because its grant application did not include a letter of interest from a major airline. “I did notice when I looked through the list of those that did get awarded contracts is every one, and there was probably 15 to 17 awards, all of them except for one had a letter of interest already from an airline for the project.”
He expanded on this, stating that the city may have applied for the grant prematurely but that the lesson learned will be factored in when the city applies for similar grants again in the future. “I think, unfortunately, the timing when we jumped into this, we weren’t able to get that. But I think that’s something, I think that’s our next step and something we’ll be working on for application for next year for a similar thing.”
During his presentation in June, Volaire’s Penning identified some challenges the city might run into trying to attract an airline to establish direct flights to the local airport, including a current shortage of pilots, increased costs, and fewer airlines.
However, Penning did say that direct flights from Kenai to Seattle were not only viable but would significantly reduce travel expenses for anyone leaving the state with a trip beginning on the peninsula.