PenAir (Anchorage Ted Stevens) has advised the US Department of Transportation that it will cease all unsubsidised routes operating at St. Paul Holman Downtown, St. George and McGrath, Alaska, effective November 12, 2017. It has however indicated that it would be willing to continue the services, pending the approval of an Essential Air Services (EAS) grant.

The carrier currently provides services from each of the airports to Anchorage Ted Stevens, Alaska, aboard Saab 340B aircraft. No other carrier currently provides scheduled services at St. George, St. Paul or McGrath, leaving them eligible for EAS subsidies.

As previously reported, PenAir last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following heavy losses at its Denver International and Portland International bases. It is now looking to cease all routes that it serves out of those airports. Regarding its bankruptcy, PenAir CEO and Chairman Danny Seybert said that it would allow the airline to emerge stronger.

"These steps will allow PenAir to seek subsidy from the DOT to continue to provide essential air service to these markets which we have been serving for nearly six decades," Seybert said in a statement to Alaska Business Monthly. "It would be our desire to continue to provide service in the routes we are currently serving within Alaska and today's DOT notice will help achieve that goal."

With a fleet of five Saab 2000s, eight Saab 340Bs and seven Saab 340B(Plus), PenAir currently serves twenty-one destinations in Alaska, as well as US mainland destinations in the Northeast, West Coast and Midwest.