PORT ANGELES — Kelly Kidwell first saw the Olympic Peninsula from the cockpit of his plane some 20 years ago, taking camping trips with his family to hike, explore and replace the sound of ringing office phones with the soothing hum of prop noise.
Years later, Kidwell now lives in the place he has seen innumerable times from the air, and, with his feet firmly planted on the ground, is the new owner of Rite Bros. Aviation with an eye toward expanding flight service in Port Angeles as Citizen Air.
The goal, he said, is to build a strong and sustainable foundation on Rite Bros.’ successful charter business and combine it with a fractional aircraft ownership model that could possibly lead to longed-for scheduled flights out of William R. Fairchild International Airport.
Kidwell will be speaking Wednesday about Citizen Air at the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Red Lion Ballroom, 121 E. Railroad Ave. To register, go to tinyurl.com/eamu5hab.
Kidwell, whose background is in financial services, said he has taken a measured approach to this venture. He can fly a plane, after all, but he’s never run an aviation business.
His conversations with Rite Bros. owner Jeff Wells, whom he knew from the tight-knit local pilot community, began about 18 months ago. Wells had worked for decades to ensure that a flight service operated out of the airport, and he wants that to continue.
“As we talked about it, I realized I can hire a team, but then I have to increase revenue for that to work, so we began talking more and more,” Kidwell said.
Kidwell said a fractional operations model, which spreads cost and risk across owners, could be a way to expand the business while increasing access to flights to and from Port Angeles.
“Every single member of that fractionalized airplane has an ownership interest in that airplane, but they transfer the risk to the professional side of the operation,” Kidwell said.
In the case of Citizen Air, the professional management team would be issued FAA management specifications for fractional ownership operations. Rite Bros. already has FAA operations specifications as a carrier.
“When you put them together, there’s special magic,” he said. “Technically, the charter company (Rite Bros.) becomes the operator of the fractional aircraft, giving you airline-level leadership and control for this fractional ownership model. This is the best of both worlds.”
Fractional ownership programs have become the fastest-growing sector of aviation since they were approved by the FAA in 2009, Kidwell said.
Citizen Air has one very light jet (VLJ) aircraft in escrow now. The plan is to add three more VLJs by the end of 2025 with five more added a year from now and eight to 10 within the next couple of years.
All Rite Bros. employees will keep their jobs, and new positions already have been added, Kidwell said. A new director of human resources and operations already has been onboarded, and an assistant to office manager Kristi Meek has been hired.
Kidwell has brought in a new pilot, is interviewing for another and will be hiring a chief technology officer.
Citizen Air’s location at Fairchild Airport and an adjacent 19-duplex housing community Kidwell is developing are both within economic opportunity zones, which provide tax incentives to investors who fund businesses and real estate projects in underserved communities in Washington.
Both projects serve the needs of the community, which Kidwell said were primary incentives in going ahead with them. His wife, Cristy, whom he calls “my adventure partner for more than three decades,” is completely supportive.
“We’re not going anywhere. This is where we want to retire,” Kidwell said. “We we are living here because we want to stay here, so I don’t want disappoint people and I want to do my part. There are things I can do and things I can’t do. But I can help with jobs and housing and aviation.”
Kidwell grew up in California’s Central Valley, never living long in one place as his parents moved from city to city, renovating distressed properties for the company that employed them.
“I grew up mostly between Stockton and Modesto, Manteca, Tracy,” he said. “My parents would have loved this place. They were blue collar, working class.”
Kidwell intended to become a counselor after earning his master’s in educational psychology at the University of San Francisco, but he pivoted to financial services when his young family’s circumstances changed with the birth of a child who had special needs. After a few years, he was able to start his own firm, Pacific Advisors. He stepped down as CEO in January but remains chairman.
About eight years ago, Kelly and Cristy Kidwell were looking for a vacation home in the area when they found Collette’s Bed & Breakfast for sale on Zillow.
“We walked in the front door, looked at the views and that was it,” he said.
They bought Collette’s as a business, which Cristy Kidwell runs, and purchased a home in Agnew, where they have lived since 2021.
It had been their original intention to keep their home in California and split their time between the two locations, but it didn’t turn out that way.
“It just kind of happened, because there was never a time we wanted to go back,” he said.
Kidwell said he understood the eagerness of locals who want to see the resumption of scheduled air service to Fairchild after Kenmore exited the Port Angeles market in 2014, as well as their disappointment in the recent failed effort of Dash Air Shuttle to get off the ground.
When it comes to scheduled flights, Kidwell advised patience and asked the community join him in taking the long view — as hard as that may be.
“I’m not doing this to be noticed, I’m doing it because I think we can do it right,” he said. “I will lose money on this for the next couple of years, for sure, because I’m building an infrastructure that is built for something bigger.
“When it finally gets stable and we break even, then I will start looking for the path toward scheduled flights.”
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
