PenAir Landing in Dutch Harbor

I grew up flying PenAir my whole life. PenAir serves the small villages along the Peninsula and is a person’s only choice if they choose to fly within this region.

Between terrible flying weather and being the only game in town, PenAir becomes WhenAir.

If you want to come to Alaska and visit wondrous and virtually tourist-free villages like Chignik and Dutch Harbor, then you’ll have to fork out the steep ticket prices for a PenAir ticket. And by steep, I mean that I bought my one-way ticket from Anchorage to King Salmon (barely an hour flight) for $250! Thats over $500 round trip for a total flying time of two hours. Expect a $1,000 price tag round trip from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor. Ya, they gotcha.

However, PenAir’s services have improved since I remember flying as a little kid to Chignik. My route within the state of Alaska would be: Anchorage to King Salmon; wait in King Salmon anywhere from two to indefinite hours and board our Chignik flight. Of course, along the way we would stop in Ugashik, Port Heiden and Pilot Point. This is how bush life works and a person should never be on a time crunch to get from A to B. Patience is your best friend.

Because PenAir has to cope with tricky weather patterns, they rarely adhere to their time schedule. When I wanted to leave Chignik I would gaze out the window and try and spot the plane coming into the bay. If I missed the plane, I would have to listen on Channel 6 (the village’s channel for communicating) for Joanne to make the call. She coordinated the village’s reservations with PenAir and she always had a certain way about her. She was a no fuss kind of lady, a necessary characteristic for rallying the troops in the remote village.

When I was twelve Joanne made the hail on the radio, “Everyone waiting to get to King Salmon, get your butts down to the airport, the plane is leaving in ten minutes!”

Before she could finish, the dust trail began on our three mile stretch of dirt road. Villagers piled into trucks and four wheelers then booked it down to the airport.

Get ready for a wild adventure if you take PenAir. Make a reservation in the summer, be prepared for an outrageous ticket cost and never, never make a tight schedule.

God speed my friend.

PenAir Website