Northern Pacific Airways (Anchorage Ted Stevens) is gearing up for its first commercial flight between Ontario International, California and Las Vegas Harry Reid on July 14, after securing outstanding operations specifications (Ops Specs) for its B757-200s, Chief Executive Officer Rob McKinney has confirmed to ch-aviation.
The carrier will use the Air Carrier Certificate (ACC) of its sister company, Ravn Alaska (7H, Anchorage Ted Stevens), when it debuts the weekly seasonal scheduled flights, the start of which was initially planned for June 2. Its fleet comprises four inhouse B757-200s, according to the ch-aviation fleets module.
Plans have been adapted several times since the carrier's establishment was first mooted in July 2021. Northern Pacific Airways had initially planned to serve as a low-cost carrier using Anchorage Ted Stevens as a connecting hub between Asia and the Continental United States based on the model of Icelandair connecting Europe and North America through Reykjavik Keflavik. However, due to the closure of Russian airspace due to its war in Ukraine, flights to Asia needed ETOPS [extended-range twin-engine operations performance standards]. Northern Pacific Airways faced the conundrum of not being able to apply for ETOPS until it started flying and not being able to start the regulatory process in Asia until it received US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authority. This led to intermediate plans to hop over the border to Mexico from Ontario, California, but these were eventually shelved as well in favour of limited domestic flights to Las Vegas.
Northern Pacific Airways is a subsidiary of FLOAT Shuttle (Burbank), which also owns regional carrier Ravn Alaska. In 2018, McKinney co-founded FLOAT (Fly Over All Traffic) Shuttle Inc., a commuter and corporate shuttle service in southern California. In April 2020, McKinney and the FLOAT Shuttle Inc. team orchestrated the acquisition of the Ravn Air Group, which had filed for bankruptcy amid financial hardships worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Under new ownership by FLOAT, Ravn Alaska restarted state-wide service with a fleet of DHC-8-100s.
