unalaska airport

Alaska Seaplanes announced Tuesday it intends to relaunch passenger air service on routes formerly served by RavnAir Group, which declared bankruptcy earlier this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Juneau-based Alaska Seaplanes had previously put in an offer to buy the Part 121 federal operating certificates from Ravn-operated airlines PenAir and Corvus — which allow scheduled service to rural hubs in the Aleutian Islands, Bristol Bay, and the Kenai Peninsula. 

While Unalaska was granted $1,120,265 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act — or CARES Act — for its airport last week, many questions remain about what the funding can be used for. 

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to offset impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy's most recent Covid-19 health mandate has very specific instructions for travel. 

All in-state travel is prohibited, unless "travel is to support critical infrastructure, or for critical personal needs." Critical infrastructure includes essential businesses. 

Divers, a tug vessel, and a crane barge crew from Resolve Marine were able to remove a LifeMed medevac plane from Unalaska Bay on Monday. It had been in the water since it crashed near the airport last week.

The three-person air ambulance crew was en route to pick up a medevac patient in Adak when the King Air Beechcraft aircraft went into the water about 100 feet northwest of the end of the Unalaska Airport runway on Jan. 16.