PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles commissioners approved an agreement with Citizen Air for a fixed-base operator lease and fueling operations at William R. Fairchild International Airport.
Citizen Air is in the process of purchasing charter service Rite Bros. Aviation, which was founded in 1981. It will pay $3,096 a month on a 10-year lease with three options to renew for terms of five years each. It will pay $1,287 a month for the aviation fueling operation for an initial five-year period with the same renewal options.
Citizen Air’s Kelly Kidwell credited Rite Bros. Aviation’s owner Jeff Wells with starting him down the path toward this venture. When he couldn’t find a fractional in the area, Kidwell told commissioners, he contacted Wells — whom he knew through their shared passion for flying — about buying a plane that Rite Bros. could add to its fleet.
Wells invited Kidwell to lunch; he was concerned that, at some point, Port Angeles would be without an air charter. So instead of buying a plane, Kidwell bought the company with an idea toward expanding aviation service throughout the area.
“All of this happened because of Jeff,” Kidwell said Tuesday.
Citizen Air will operate as a fractional airline company, offering individuals the opportunity to purchase a share in an aircraft and access it through Rite Bros., which will operate as a its management company, he said.
As part of its agreement with the port, Citizen Air will receive the first right to purchase or lease hangar space. The lack of hangar space around the Puget Sound area and limitations to building out new ones had constrained the growth of fractional ownership, Kidwell said.
“Part of what’s going to make this whole model work will be the fact that Port Angeles will be in a forward-looking posture about additional hangars big enough for more jet traffic,” Kidwell said. “The big opportunity for us is that this will allow the rest of the cities in Puget Sound to have a fractional and their contributions to that and all the management fees will build infrastructure capacity here for the thing we all really want for the rest of the community.”
That is scheduled air service.
“Scheduled air service is a tough nut to crack, and we are committed to cracking that nut,” he said. “This is a perhaps unorthodox way to look at making that a reality, but if we build this correctly, scheduled service will be durable.”
Citizen Air’s first very light jet (VLJ) is expected to arrive in May, and the company will be interviewing a potential chief pilot next week, Kidwell said.
“I just want to say thank you for your patience in this process and all the hard work everybody did,” Kidwell said. “I know that it wasn’t easy.”
Also Tuesday, port commissioners approved the purchase of a $2.3 million electric Taylor reachstacker from Washington Liftruck that will replace two old diesel log stackers was approved. Ninety-five percent of the cost will be funded by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Ports Grant.
The port and the state Department of Transportation each will contribute 5 percent ($116,378) toward its purchase.
The new equipment will arrive in about a year.
Also approved was a $299,271 services agreement with Moffat & Nichol for project management, preliminary design, potential environmental impact and mitigation, and state environment protection act (SEPA) review and permitting for Terminal 1 and 3 upgrades.
The port obtained funding for the project through the Clallam Economic Development Council and contributed a $150,000 match. The project will put the port in a good position for being awarded grants to fund construction costs, said Chris Hartman, the port’s director of engineering.
Commissioners Connie Beauvais and Steve Burke voted for the measure; Commissioner Colleen McAleer, who is the EDC executive director, abstained.
A grant agreement with the state Department of Ecology for planning, specifications and construction of a stormwater treatment system at the Intermodal Handling and Transfer Facility also was approved. The port will cover $63,000 of the cost and the Department of Ecology will pay the balance ($1,044,000).
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
