PORT ANGELES — Just as the holidays loom, the North Olympic Peninsula will lose its only commercial air passenger service.
How will residents travel off the Peninsula to visit friends and families? How will visitors arrive?
Other than making the drive to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport or taking a taxi, two bus services and a charter flight service are available.
Rocket Transportation, based in Sequim, provides door-to-door shuttle service on a reservation basis, with round-trip tickets to Sea-Tac ranging from $110 to $250, depending on the customer’s residence.
Olympic Dungeness Lines of Port Angeles is a state Department of Transportation bus line operated through a bid process by Olympic Bus Lines owner Jack Heckman.
It currently makes two scheduled trips daily, with one-way fares $49 for adults and $25 for those 15 and younger.
It travels between Port Angeles, Sequim, Port Townsend, Discovery Bay, Kingston, Edmonds, downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac.
Heckman said Friday an increase over his two runs of scheduled service a day would have to be worked out with Transportation.
“If there was additional need, we would probably get together with DOT, since we are partners,” Heckman said.
Rocket Transportation owner Kathy Roman said Saturday she expects to add a fifth regular run in April to fill the vacuum left by Kenmore.
“I would definitely see it expanding our customer base and it enables us to expand to runs that are convenient to everybody,” she said.
“As they have been contracting, we have been expanding.”
Jeff Well, owner of Rite Bros. Aviation, which operates out of William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles, runs a charter service to Sea-Tac that costs $82 to $396 one-way, depending on the number of passengers.
“We have more capability than we’ve been utilizing,” Well said, adding that his company benefited from Kenmore by maintaining the company’s planes.
“We have a little bit of ability to take on more without doing anything.
“I really don’t know what the market is going to be like because obviously, it wasn’t good enough for Kenmore to stick around.”
