Wenatchee Valley Airport Could See Just One Daily Flight as Alaska Considers Dropping Flights

Apr. 12—EAST WENATCHEE — People trying to fly to and from Wenatchee may have only one time option starting in September.

That's because Alaska Air Group's Horizon Air could discontinue one of its two daily departures and arrivals at Pangborn.

"It's disappointing," said Jim Kuntz, Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority CEO, at Tuesday's port meeting, where he made the announcement.

The port heard about the change April 6 when new draft schedules were downloaded into the airport's computer system, he said.

Pangborn wasn't "being singled out," Kuntz said.

There are six other airports, including Walla Walla, Yakima, San Antonio, Great Falls, Montana, Edmonton (Canada) and Victoria (Canada) that could go to a single daily flight in September.

The expected changes would not affect Tri-Cities Airport, but would affect Walla Walla and Yakima. Altogether, Alaska might eliminate 58 daily departures from Seattle, or 18%, of its departures.

But the cancellations may not happen, according to Camille Koenig, Pangborn station manager for Horizon, but she would know for sure in a couple of weeks.

"It's just a draft schedule," she said. "It's subject to change at this point so we're not sure. But chances are good that it will go into effect."

She added she was "bugging them ( Alaska) to change their mind" because she didn't want the airport to lose another flight.

She also said she didn't know how any possible cancellations would affect numbers of airline employees at the airport.

Alaska's new schedule starts Sept. 7, she said.

A quick search Tuesday to book a flight on that day showed no times in and out of Pangborn, but a message:

"We are unable to complete your search request," it read. "There may not be flights available for those city pairs or for the time or day of week requested. Please check our schedule or change your search. If you continue to receive this message call Reservations at 1-800-252-7522."

Kuntz said the reason for possible discontinuations in and out of Pangborn was due to lack of pilots throughout the industry and Alaska's announcement in March to retire its Bombardier Q400 turboprops and use Embraer 175 jets for regional airports by the end of 2023.

The proposed schedule obtained by the World had one flight leaving Seattle at 12:30 p.m. and arriving in Wenatchee at 1:18 p.m., and a flight leaving Wenatchee at 1:58 p.m. and arriving in Seattle at 2:51 p.m.

Besides impacting fliers, the possible cut would hurt the airport financially, Kuntz said. It would come as the port was undertaking multi-million dollar projects, including plans for a new runway, he added. Those impacts would include any airplane fuel sales and parking fees, among other things.

"We just can't abandon our plans," he said.

However, staff and commissioners agreed Tuesday those plans were still vital, especially if the airport wanted to attract bigger airlines with more destinations.

"This is the exact thing we should be doing," said Rory Turner, District 3 port commissioner for Chelan County.

They also agreed to move forward with an undisclosed airline that asked Trent Moyers, port director of airports, whether it could use the airport "less than daily."

Kuntz said that client "had not been made public yet."

However, it was mentioned in the meeting's discussion that it flew to 21 "seasonal destinations," including Mexico City and Chicago.

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