Pangborn Reducing Air Service from Three Flights to One

Pangborn Memorial Airport has been experiencing a significant decrease in its passenger volume due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the drop will at least temporarily cost the airport two flights a day.

Starting Friday, April 10th, Alaska Airlines will go from three flights a day to just one until at least June 10th.

Regional Port Authority Director of Airports Trent Moyers said they started to see a decline in Pangborn's load factor, or the percentage of seats filled by paying passengers, a few weeks ago.

"We were hovering around 77%." Moyers began, "We started to see those number drop down to 65%, 50%, down to 30%, 20%, and now we're around 9-10%."

According to Moyers, the closest the airport has ever been to this poor of a load factor was around 40% back in 2008, when Alaska's larger, 76-passenger airplanes first came on board.

Although things certainly appear bleak now, the nation's economic struggles may actually provide more opportunity for that coveted Bay Area flight.

"I think because of what's happening in the industry, it may actually play to our favor, when things come back to 'normal', where airlines are looking to put their resources," added Moyers.

Port officials hope other airlines may give Pangborn another look because of the revenue guarantee program Pangborn has in place to help a new airline start up service.