PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles Harbor is going up on the charts, and Port Townsend might follow.
The Federal Aviation Administration has established the Port Angeles Seaplane base — in effect, water runway W66 — east of City Pier, according to a July 18 notice to the Port of Port Angeles.
The new identifier, for a decades-old seaplane lane that dropped off aviation charts several years ago, will go into effect Sept. 12 and will be added to digital aviation charts Oct. 14, port Airport Manager Dan Gase said Wednesday.
Gase, the new sea-lane’s manager, said the designation “absolutely” will bring more seaplane traffic to the harbor as more pilots become aware of the access — and if and when a seaplane dock is built at City Pier off Hollywood Beach.
Gase said a group of business leaders working toward that end includes Marc Abshire, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director, as well as John Nutter, port director of Properties, Marinas and Airports.
“They want to see a dock for seaplanes at Hollywood Beach,” Gase said.
“Right now, I would estimate we might see a seaplane come in and land in Port Angeles Harbor and go into the marina once every couple of months,” Gase said.
After a seaplane dock is built, “in the summer, you could see a couple a day,” he said.
“That could be an avenue for opening up scheduled air service to Victoria and Vancouver.”
The port has a single-aircraft dock at its Port Angeles Boat Haven marina west of City Pier.
Port of Port Townsend Commission President Bill Putney said Wednesday the port may use Port Angeles’ FAA application process as a template for an effort to revive its own seaplane base. Port Angeles applied for the designation in September 2017.
Seaplane pilots beach their aircraft in Port Townsend off the Nifty 50s retro restaurant’s shoreline where “it’s hard to get people on and off without taking a swim,” Putney said.
Port commissioners are in the market for a float to allow seaplanes to tie up at the Union Wharf, Putney said.
“It would keep propellers and things off the beach and away from pedestrians and work better all the way around,” he said.
Putney said it’s unlikely the port would develop the waterfront with a seaplane refueling station that could attract commercial seaplane carriers, a complicated process permit-wise, and expensive, cost-wise.
Gase said the Boat Haven dock won’t be expanded to accommodate commercial flight service, even though Kevin Franklin, Washington Seaplane Pilots Association board member, said expansion could attract commercial passenger service.
Port Angeles has not had scheduled commercial passenger air service since November 2014, when Kenmore Air stopped providing flights from Fairchild International Airport to Boeing Field in Seattle.
Gase said the designation for the 3,200-foot strip of water was achieved by the port with help from the Seaplane Pilots Association.
“The main issue is that boats and airplanes in a tight, confined space don’t get along very well,” Gase said.
The sea lane can be used for private, charter and commercial passenger service.
Port Angeles would be an ideal location for a fuel dock for seaplane flights between Seattle and major seaplane bases in Victoria and Vancouver, B.C., said Franklin, a Bellevue resident.
He estimated seaplane fares would be $100 to $150 one-way for flights to and from Seattle.
“That’s not cheap, but it’s not extraordinarily costly,” Franklin said.
The port has no plans to develop a commercial seaplane dock with fueling services, Gase said.
He said the group interested in establishing the seaplane pier is known as The Renaissance Group.
Abshire said the group, whose activities the chamber is facilitating, does not have a name and includes representatives of government entities.
“There is a group of people who are working behind the scenes in a private way, getting together to talk about developments going on in the downtown area, especially,” he said, declining to name who is involved.
Members are “looking into the possibilities” for the seaplane dock, Abshire said, adding they do not include coordinating those efforts with the city’s redevelopment of nearby Railroad Avenue.
“We would love to have something going on in the next couple of years.”
But the new designation does have potential, Abshire said, given upcoming downtown developments, which include a new hotel and a new performing arts center.
“It gives us the potential to actually come up with some kind of a program that might bring in floatplanes and floatplane-related businesses, including service to other ports in the Northwest,” he said.
“It’s just another avenue for people, a way for people to actually get to and from Port Angeles.”
Franklin said the seaplane pilots group searched Library of Congress archives for seaplane bases in Washington state that had lost officials designations but were still in use, finding a dozen among 75 water strips that had vanished from aviation charts.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
