The new Anchorage airline aims to bring year-round tourism to Alaska

The head of a new Anchorage-based airline said the company hopes to bring hundreds of jobs and a significant increase in tourism to Alaska.

Rob McKinney is CEO of FLOAT Alaska LLC, which owns Ravn Alaska, and he described Northern Pacific Airways as the next evolution of the Ravn brand, after it was resurrected from bankruptcy in 2020.

McKinney was part of the ownership group that bought some of Ravn’s assets and renamed Ravn Alaska.

On Wednesday, Northern Pacific unveiled its new first-class lounge in the North Terminal of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. McKinney said the new airline will employ 250 people locally, bring millions of dollars in tax revenue to Alaska and eventually maybe even billions to the economy by extending the tourism season.

We believe we can eventually take the seasonality out of Alaska tourism, McKinney said. And if you think about what that translates to, I mean everybody’s just doing as hard as they can for three and a half, four months, but if you can translate that to 12 months, the number of jobs that’s going to be created, and no longer seasonal, it will only be transformative for the state.

The company’s business model is based on Anchorage as the midway point between major cities in East Asia and the US

Beginning early next year, McKinney said, Northern Pacific will offer flights from cities in Japan and Korea to Anchorage and then to Lower 48 destinations. Stopping in Anchorage means saving fuel, and he expects their flights to be 20% cheaper than those of non-stop competitors. He said the travel time will be similar, due to the much shorter clearance experience in Anchorage than, say, Los Angeles or New York airports.

The concept has already been proven by Icelandair, McKinney said.

Look at the Atlantic, you can easily cross the Atlantic non-stop, he said. Yet Icelandair has phenomenal business. They have 50 planes and they all stop at Keflavk there in Iceland. So it’s possible.

By attracting travelers all year round, McKinney said, Iceland increased its tourism by 500%. If Alaska even doubled its current tourism, it could boost tourism revenues by billions of dollars, he said.

RavnAir Group operated as the largest rural carrier in Alaskato bankruptcy in April 2020 due to a reported a 90% loss of sales amid a slump in travel due to the pandemic. The filing also came in the wake of a 2019 crash in Unalaska that resulted in just the second fatal accident for a commercial airline in the US in the previous decade.

Northern Pacific’s first flights will be between Los Angeles and Las Vegas starting July 14 as a proof of concept. Aviation officials hope to have the trans-Pacific flights up and running by spring 2024.