Unalaska, AK – The new Akutan airport may mean fewer flights to Unalaska in the future. The airport is scheduled for completion in 2012 and will be built on Akun Island. Passengers will travel via hovercraft the seven miles to the village of Akutan and the Trident fish processing plant there. The runway will be long enough to allow flights directly from Anchorage to Akutan. Currently, almost everyone traveling to Akutan has to fly into Unalaska first.

PenAir president Danny Seybert said the Department of Transportation only keeps partial data on how many people fly through the Unalaska airport and go to Akutan. "Right now they show 3,000 to 3,500 passengers per year fly from Dutch Harbor to Akutan. What we don't know is how many people fly into Dutch Harbor and take boats over there. Because nobody is required to report traffic by boats."

Seybert said it could be as many as 5,000 or 6,000 passengers per year. When they start flying straight to Akutan, it will reduce the number of flights necessary to bring people to Unalaska. He said ticket prices won't change because they are still flying the same number of people out to the region, but ultimately the pricing decision is up to Alaska Airlines.

Seybert said they will also continue using Cold Bay as the stopping point for flights headed west at this point, but that will eventually change.

"To start with, we won't have all of the infrastructure on Akun that we have in Cold Bay in terms of fuel, de-icing and that sort of thing. But eventually that will be brought up to speed, and we'll have all the similar stuff."

The completion of the Akutan airport will also mean the end for the Grumman Goose. "Once that runway is done, we have three Gooses, we'll sell all three, and get out of the Goose business."

Seybert said they will probably buy Twin Otters to fly from Unalaska to Akutan and to Nikolski. The twin otter is a 19 passenger turbo prop plane that's designed to land on narrow, soft runways.