The chief of a new airline based in Anchorage said it hopes to create hundreds of jobs as well as an increase of tourism revenue to Alaska.
Rob McKinney is CEO of FLOAT Alaska LLC, which is the owner of Ravn Alaska. He said that Northern Pacific Airways as the next step in the evolution that will be the next evolution of the Ravn brand, following the fact that it emerged from bankruptcy in 2020.
McKinney made up part of the group which bought the assets of Ravn and rebranded them as Ravn Alaska.
The day before, Northern Pacific unveiled its new first-class lounge at the North Terminal of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. McKinney stated that Northern Pacific will employ 250 local workers as well as which will bring millions in tax revenues in Alaska and, in the future possibly billions to the economy through the extension of the tourist season.
“We believe that eventually we can eliminate the seasonality from tourism within Alaska,” McKinney said. “And If you think about what it means it, then everybody is working as long as they can for three and a half four months. If you can make that translate to twelve months, the amount of jobs that can be made, and will that will not be tied to seasonality and it’s going to change the state.”
The business model of Anchorage is based on Anchorage as an intermediate point between major cities of the eastern region of Asia as well as the U.S.
Beginning in the first quarter of next year, McKinney stated that, starting in the spring of next year, Northern Pacific will offer flights from cities in Japan and Korea to Anchorage and onwards to destinations in the Lower 48. Making stops in Anchorage will save fuel, and he anticipates that their flight to cost 20 percent less expensive than competitors that do not have a nonstop service. The time of travel will be similar due to the less invasive customs clearance time in Anchorage in comparison to Los Angeles or New York airports, as an example.
The idea has been tested through Icelandair, McKinney said.
“Look at the Atlantic and you could easily travel nonstop through to the Atlantic,” he said. “Yet Icelandair has phenomenal business. They own 50 planes and all of them stop in Keflavik in Iceland. It is possible to do it.”
Through bringing in year-round tourists, McKinney said, Iceland increased their tourism by 500%.. If Alaska could even double the amount of tourists it currently has this could boost tourism revenues in the billions McKinney said.
RavnAir Group was the most rural carrier in Alaska until it declared the company bankrupt in April of 2020, owing to the reported loss of 90% of revenue due to a decline in travel resulting from the pandemic. The bankruptcy filing was also following the fatal crash in 2019 that killed a passenger in Unalaska.
Northern Pacific’s initial flights will be from Los Angeles and Las Vegas starting on July 14 as an initial test of the concept. Airline officials are hoping to have trans-Pacific flights operational by the beginning of spring 2024.
