LETTER: Air service

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 25, 2026

In response to the letter “Flight Service” (PDN, April 11-12.)

I appreciate the writer’s thoughtful letter and am encouraged to see community interest in improving air service on the Peninsula.

There is one important clarification: fractional ownership and the SoundPass membership service are not the same thing.

Fractional ownership is designed for a small group of aircraft owners. SoundPass, by contrast, is intended for the broader public and does not require anyone to own part of an airplane.

Today, Citizen Air already operates FAA-certified charter flights with professional pilots. Many of those flights, often between Port Angeles and the Seattle area, depart with empty seats.

In fact, last year there were roughly 2,000 unused seats on flights that operated anyway.

SoundPass simply allows community members to access those otherwise empty seats when a charter customer chooses to share the flight, similar to a carpool in the air.

We agree that traditional scheduled service is familiar and desirable. It is also our long-term goal.

However, the Peninsula presents real challenges: large seasonal swings in demand and winter weather limitations.

Building a sustainable service requires year-round aircraft, staffing and measurable consumer demand.

Our approach is to layer solutions such as full-service charter, shared-seat membership and fractional fleet support to create the stability needed to ultimately support scheduled flights.

We welcome the conversation and invite the writer or any interested reader to connect with us and learn more.

Kelly Kidwell

Port Angeles

CEO, Citizen Air