US start-up carrier Northern Pacific Airways has delayed its launch by three weeks.
The carrier was due to begin operations with a short once-weekly flight in each direction between Ontario International airport in the Los Angeles basin and Las Vegas on 2 June. Now, on the airline’s website, the earliest date it is possible to book a ticket is 23 June.
The carrier did not respond to a request for comment.
The flight is scheduled to leave Ontario on Fridays at 14:00 local time, arriving in Las Vegas an hour later. A return flight is scheduled to leave Las Vegas at 14:00 on Sundays, beginning on 4 June, arriving into Ontario at 15:00 local time.
The flight times would seem to cater to customers from the Los Angeles metropolitan area looking to spend a weekend in Las Vegas - a common and popular trip. The distance between the two airports is listed as 197nm (365km). By car, with traffic, that one-way journey can take 4-5h.
According to Cirium fleets data, Northern Pacific has four Boeing 757-200s, all in storage. It took delivery of the first aircraft 16 months ago.
Northern Pacific had initially intended to launch operations in the third quarter of 2022, but last October said it expected to begin flying passengers in “spring 2023”. The airline is wholly owned by Float Alaska, which acquired fellow regional carrier Ravn Alaska’s operations out of bankruptcy in 2021.
The fledgling long-haul airline’s business model seeks to replicate across the Pacific Ocean what Reykjavik-headquartered Icelandair does over the Atlantic. For years, the Icelandic carrier used its island base about midway between North America and Europe to offer low-fare flights between the continents, with the option for stopovers. Northern Pacific has said it intends to fly from Anchorage to South Korea, Japan and elsewhere in the USA.
