Juneau-based Alaska Seaplanes will add Wrangell to its route map starting May 26. The company, which operates a fleet of 14 single-engine aircraft, mostly nine-passenger planes, will run a daily flight from Sitka to Petersburg to Wrangell and back to Sitka.
Encouragement from SEARHC “was instrumental” in starting the Sitka-Wrangell service, Andy Kline, Alaska Seaplanes marketing manager, said last Wednesday.
SEARHC is based in Sitka where it operates the Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center, providing acute, specialty and behavioral health care services, and to help support its other sites in Southeast, including the Wrangell Medical Center.
“We talked with them (SEARHC) quite a bit about this,” Kline said.
“This new route will continue to improve the timely transportation of staff and beneficiaries to our network of health care facilities,” Dan Harris, chief financial officer at SEARHC, said in a prepared statement. “Alaska Seaplanes’ addition of Wrangell will give us more flexibility as we transport our people to provide and receive their care.”
The new flight is scheduled to leave Sitka at 1 p.m. each day, arriving in Wrangell at 2:10 p.m. and landing back in Sitka at 3 p.m., seven days a week.
“We’re intending it to be year-round,” Kline said.
Alaska Seaplanes marked its 25th anniversary last week. Wrangell will become its 15th destination in Southeast. It operates seven wheeled aircraft and seven floatplanes, Kline said, recently adding two more nine-passenger Cessna 208 Grand Caravans to its fleet.
The air service will use its Pilatus PC-12, a pressurized aircraft that can cruise at 300 mph, in addition to the Grand Caravan on the new Sitka-Wrangell route.
Alaska Seaplanes has purchased a trailer at Wrangell airport to serve as its office, waiting room and freight depot. “It needs a little revamping,” Kline said, but will be ready for the May 26 inaugural flight.
Tickets are available on the Alaska Seaplanes’ website. Fares were listed Monday at $339 one way between Wrangell and Sitka. The same routing on Alaska Airlines is about half the price, but involves a connection and seven-hour layover in Juneau to get from Sitka to Wrangell, and a tight connection in Ketchikan to return to Sitka.
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