Flight service may be launched
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 18, 2026
PORT ANGELES — A membership-based flight service that would allow passengers to book individual seats on trips around Puget Sound — more like hailing a ride than chartering a plane — could launch from Port Angeles within weeks, Citizen Air CEO Kelly Kidwell told the Port Angeles Business Association on Tuesday during its breakfast meeting at Jazzy Joshua’s
SoundPass is a program within Citizen Air designed to make use of flights that operate out of William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles but often return without passengers.
The service would operate as a membership rather than a traditional airline schedule, which Kidwell said allows the company to offer seats while complying with federal aviation rules.
Using an app the company is developing, users could request trips and be notified when space opens.
“You can go in and say, ‘I’d like to go to Seattle next Tuesday,’” Kidwell said. “And as soon as any flight gets booked for Seattle, you get a notice saying there’s a seat available.”
Flying from Port Angeles to Boeing Field takes about 20 minutes.
He said the membership is expected to cost about $50 a month, with that amount credited back to the member’s account for future flights.
Kidwell said SoundPass is intended to address long-standing challenges with sustaining year-round air service on the North Olympic Peninsula, where demand fluctuates seasonally and weather can limit operations.
Aircraft limitations also have played a role, he said, noting that planes without de-icing capability cannot legally be dispatched in certain conditions.
“We will have much better dependability with aircraft that are allowed to fly,” Kidwell said.
For SoundPass, Citizen Air plans to use small, single-engine Cirrus SR22-type aircraft, which carry a pilot and three passengers. Kidwell said the planes are well-suited for short regional trips, are less expensive to operate than larger planes and small enough to make a seat-based, on-demand model viable.
He said launching the new service largely depends on the pace of Federal Aviation Administration approval, noting that companies must first hire staff and acquire aircraft, then file and wait for clearance to operate.
Kidwell said Citizen Air also is monitoring emerging aircraft technology, including the nine-passenger Electra EL9, a hybrid-electric aircraft capable of extremely short takeoffs and landings, although he said the technology is still developing.
Looking ahead, the company is expanding its fractional ownership business, which allows multiple customers to share an aircraft rather than owning one outright.
“Fractionalizing means that a group of four or eight people could all own the same airplane,” he said.
The company relocated a fractional jet operation from Bellingham to Port Angeles, with the goal of establishing a regional customer base while keeping aircraft, pilots and maintenance jobs based locally.
“This will allow people in Seattle and Bellingham and Olympia to buy their piece of an airplane, but the airplanes come back here to sleep at night, and the pilots and the mechanics have full-time jobs in our town,” he said.
Kidwell founded Citizen Air in 2024 after he and his wife, Cristy, moved to the North Olympic Peninsula about five years ago, deciding to live where they had long come to vacation. The venture began with the purchase of Rite Bros. Aviation from longtime owner Jeff Well.
The company already has added more than 20 living-wage jobs, including pilots and mechanics, who are in short supply, and is continuing to hire as it grows.
While past efforts to expand air service in Port Angeles have struggled, Kidwell said Citizen Air is working to build a durable, locally based service rooted in the community.
“We are really, really close now,” he said. “We’re learning, and we will be listening.”
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
