Airline to offer nine-person, TSA-free flights from Felts Field to Seattle

Next week, a commercial airplane will depart from Spokane’s Felts Field for the first time since 1946.

The plane will be a Pilatus PC-12, a nine-passenger, two-pilot craft with cabin pressurization and temperature control. It is 1 of 4 in SeaPort Airline’s new Pacific Northwest fleet, which will begin offering four round trips to Seattle, most days, starting March 9.

“You can wake up in Spokane, do a full day’s business in Seattle and be back home here for dinner,” CEO of SeaPort’s parent company Kalinin Companies, Kent Craford, said. “It is going to be the greatest thing that’s happened to bring the two sides of Washington closer together.”

Seattle has long been the top travel destination for Spokane passengers. In the 1930s, Craford said flying presented “endless possibilities” for transportation between the cities, with the commute to downtown Seattle being as short as two and a half hours. Now, that time is closer to three and a half hours.

“We’ve got all of the knowledge about the history of the world in the palm of your hand, and yet we have come to be conditioned to accept that one aspect of life will only get worse every year, and that’s transportation,” he said. “And that makes no sense to me at all. It was easier to fly between Spokane and Seattle 80 years ago than it is today.”

SeaTac has created a travel “bottleneck,” Craford said, as TSA and ever-increasing airport size combine to extend the time it takes people to even reach their planes. While admissible for long-distance flights, intrastate flights can take nearly as long as driving.

Private aircraft bounce back and forth between Seattle’s Boeing Field and Felts Field all the time, though. SeaPort aims to use the same method as those private flights, but put planes on a schedule and sell individual seats rather than the whole space.

Kalinin Companies also owns the Juneau-based airline Alaska Seaplanes, which has acted as a regional airline for Southeast Alaska since 1997. In Alaska, Craford said, people take planes to the doctor’s office and fishing spots. Last summer, SeaPort began its first Lower 48 route, offering round trips between Portland and Seattle.

Due to the nine-passenger capacity of PC-12 aircraft, SeaPort and other Kalinin Companies airlines fall below TSA thresholds and are instead regulated like charter planes under the Federal Aviation Administration. Craford said that passenger screening is the same that you might find on buses, ferries or trains in the state, just with fewer passengers.

“And so now, any member of the public can jump on a SeaPort Airlines flight for the cost of what you would pay a major airline within three days before you fly,” he said.

One-way tickets to Seattle begin at $299, subject to change with demand. Parking is free at the airport, and check-in is 20 minutes before departure . Riders can book same -day flights online.

“It revolutionizes the way that people get between our two great cities,” chief pilot Ian Fisk said. “And it gives people a little bit of their precious time back. And I know as a parent and a hardworking guy how important time is.”

Flying since age 15, Fisk calls the PC-12 his “sports car.”

“We can fly up to 28,000 feet, we can get up above a lot of the weather smaller planes can’t,” he said. “It’s just a great airplane. It’s very capable of flying into small fields and large airports. It’s fast – so we can keep up with the big guys, and then we can also go into more unique places as well.”

The convenience is to say nothing of the flying experience, though.

“It’s quiet, it’s warm. Everybody’s got a window seat and an aisle seat, so that’s pretty sweet,” Fisk said. “Our pilots know our customers by name.”

Around 500 people travel between Spokane and Seattle per day, Spokane Airport CEO David Haring said. He believes a more hassle-free journey will be particularly attractive for Spokane business folk.

Joey Gunning, director of economic development for Greater Spokane Incorporated, agrees.

“In terms of our local economy, it’s gonna have job growth ripple effects,” Gunning said. “I mean, you think about the – not just pilots and maintenance crew that has to be hired to support the work here – these planes are purchasing fuel, and that might mean more fuel truck drivers.”

Both Craford and Haring see room for growth for the alternative flight model – whether that be SeaPort flights connecting new cities in the Pacific Northwest or more Spokane direct routes through other carriers.

“We’re taking suggestions,” Craford said. “Spokane recruited us, and we’re thrilled that they did because they made an incredible start. The growth in this region is impressive – you can feel it.”

Haring said that the aviation industry is in a “dynamic point of change right now.”

“I certainly think connecting the two biggest cities makes the most sense, but does that mean that you’re going to see this connectivity take place in other places in Washington or throughout the country?” he said. “It could.”