Aleutian Airways flew its first scheduled Saab 2000 flight to St. Paul on Monday, restoring regularly scheduled passenger service to Anchorage nearly nine months after Ravn Alaska ended its route to the Bering Sea community. Since then, residents have relied on expensive charter flights.
Now, after months of delays and uncertainty, residents can finally book a regular commercial flight again.
“I'm not exaggerating when I say it's life-changing,” said John Wayne Melovidov, the president of St. Paul’s tribal government, the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island.
St. Paul City Manager Phil Zavadil helped organize a joint team of leaders from the city, the tribal government, the village corporation and the island's CDQ group for months to restore affordable service.
Melovidov said the community pushed hard to find a solution to what many residents saw as the community’s biggest issue.
“For our membership to have access, to get on and off island, and to get to their appointments, or to get to their business meetings, or just even have a vacation—this is huge,” Melovidov said.
Aleutian Airways in December won its bid with the federal Essential Air Service program, which subsidizes flights in places where commercial service is not viable. The contract also includes the Western Alaska communities of Unalakleet and St. Mary’s, where complications lead to a similar situation as St. Paul.
Inclement weather and a required certification to fly over water make it particularly difficult for commercial airlines to fly to St. Paul. Aleutian Airways originally planned to begin service at the beginning of the year, but had to push its launch back several months to obtain overwater certification.
“Once they were able to get things ironed out, they were able to have their first flight just on Monday,” Melovidov said. “I happened to be flying out that day, so I got to fly out on the Saab 2000 and it's great. It's great to be able to have access to the rest of the world, to America, is great.”
One-way flights to Anchorage cost around $400 — the cheapest price St. Paul has seen in at least a decade.
