Northern Pacific Airways (Anchorage Ted Stevens) is planning to launch transpacific operations using wet-leased aircraft initially, the carrier said in its application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for an exemption and a certificate of public convenience and necessity.
"Northern Pacific intends to start scheduled service between Anchorage Ted Stevens, Alaska, on the one hand, and Korea and Japan, on the other hand, both of which are Open Skies partners of the United States, initially via a wet-lease with a certificated US air carrier and subsequently with its own crews and B757 aircraft. Northern Pacific seeks the flexibility and breadth of blanket US - OpenSkies certificate authority to encompass additional Open-Skies countries and to avoid the additional administrative burdens," the airline said.
Northern Pacific Airways - the parent of Ravn Alaska (7H, Anchorage Ted Stevens) - is planning to build Anchorage into a hub, connecting Asia and North America akin to Icelandair (FI, Reykjavik Keflavik) and its Reykjavik transatlantic hub. The ch-aviation fleets module shows the carrier's parent FLOAT Shuttle (Burbank) owns three B757-200s - N200UU (msn 27809), N201UU (msn 27810), and N206UW (msn 27808) - which remain in storage at Roswell, Fort Worth Alliance, and San Bernardino airports, respectively. The last of the trio was unveiled in January 2022 in Northern Pacific's full livery and registered as N627NP, although the FAA register still lists it under its previous registration.
It is not clear why Northern Pacific plans to launch with wet-leased aircraft let alone who the contracted US carrier is. The airline did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment.
Northern Pacific Airways is planning to launch in November 2022 and is investing USD6 million in its own terminal area at Anchorage. It will cooperate with Ravn Alaska's regional services, hoping to feed some of the "via" traffic to its statewide services and boost tourism in Alaska.
