PORT ANGELES — San Juan Island residents are grateful they have San Juan Airlines and Boeing Field to help them catch flights out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
In time, Clallam County residents will feel the same, said airline executives who spoke to the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
About 150 attended the weekly chamber luncheon at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant to hear from the only airline so far announced as replacing Horizon Air at William R. Fairchild International Airport next month.
“You shudder at the loss of Horizon airlines, but in time you will learn you have lost nothing,” said Pat O’Day, San Juan Airlines spokesman and retired Seattle radio personality who owns a real estate agency in Friday Harbor.
O’Day, who credited himself for working out the deal to get Clyde Carlson to buy what became Renton-based San Juan Airlines, said Carlson and his son and chief pilot, Shane, would bring reliable and affordable airline service to Port Angeles.
“You can rest assured that they will accomplish profitability in your community,” O’Day said.
Last month, Horizon Air announced it would discontinue service to Port Angeles effective Jan. 7 because it was losing money in a market that generates too few passengers to Sea-Tac.
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The rest of the story appears in Tuesday’s Peninsula Daily News Clallam County edition.
