According to a 2019 survey by consulting firm Oliver Wyman, pilot shortages are expected to continue in North America through this decade. A recent survey found that regional carriers have a harder time recruiting talent, with 83 percent of regional carriers finding it challenging versus 22 percent of low-cost carriers feeling the pinch.

Anchorage-based Ravn Alaska, which bounced back from COVID-induced bankruptcy, stumbled again last fall. Ravn cut all flights to Kenai and Aniak in October 2023 due to pilot shortages and laid off 130 employees in March of this year. Alaska Airlines and its regional subsidiary Horizon Air maintained at least minimal service to those communities.

Recognizing a need after Ravn Alaska canceled flights, Grant Aviation stepped in, announcing fifty new flights between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula each week, a nearly 30 percent increase in service at the time.

The decision to add flights between Anchorage and Kenai was an easy one, says Grant’s VP of Commercial Operations Dan Knesek. He says Grant added flights to the Kenai Peninsula to meet the needs of the oil and gas industry, visitors, and others. He also says that Grant was grateful to be able to provide more service to Peninsula communities.

“It kind of started during COVID when the original Ravn went bankrupt and stopped service. We were basically left as the only scheduled air service on that route, and we were 100 percent full on every flight. When the new owners took over Ravn and came back, we still maintained service, but we didn’t have any equipment to add to the route, and there was no other availability beyond Ravn,” Knesek says. Grant’s fleet includes the Beech King Air 200, Cessna Grand Caravan, Piper PA-350 Navajo, and smaller single-engine planes; nothing that can carry more than nine passengers.

“Without that, we cannot fly under the instrument flight rules, which is the safest way of flying.” Knesek says.

Kompkoff adds that, while all of Grant’s aircraft are equipped with updated Garmin satellite navigation systems so they can fly using instrument flight rules, service is not always available in the areas in which the company flies.

Knesek says Grant is continuing its partnership at the federal and state level to improve infrastructure, for the benefit of all air carriers. “This is an ongoing challenge, and there’s not a week that goes by that we are not doing something along those lines,” he says. “And we have to continue that, as well as staying ahead of advancing technology on the aircraft side and the different fuels and new technologies that are coming out. We’re of the size that we need to make sure we stay ahead of all that.”

Both Knesek and Kompkoff credit Grant’s commitment to the communities it serves as a key reason for its success. “We’re members of the community; how do we prove that on a daily basis?” asks Knesek. “We are prepared to get emergency supplies to villages as soon as the weather clears. We were there before anyone else. We are members of the communities and we support those communities.”

“We’re not trying to oversell what we do. We just understand the gravity of the service we provide,” he says. “Most of these communities don’t have road service. Their groceries, medicines, Christmas presents, all of these things are arriving on our aircraft. We’re taking elders to their doctors’ visits in Bethel. Those critical services make us this integrated member of the community, and it’s really amazing to see when our community members get to know the pilots. They call them out by their first names. They joke with them. Alaskans fly five times more than the average American. We’re like the local bus service for the people we serve in these communities.”

Another important reason for the company’s success is its continued commitment to improving its operations. Kompkoff notes that Grant has been around for fifty years, and there’s every reason it should be around for fifty more, so its leaders make decisions for the people who will be leading the company in the future.

Kompkoff and Knesek both mention several things the company is doing to improve its internal technology systems, such as advanced pilot qualification training and a safety management system, which is a new requirement for Grant’s level of operations.

“The type of services and everything an air carrier has to do when they operate in rural Alaska and the challenges they face every day—those are the things that challenge us on a daily basis. That’s why we’re here, and anyone here would say the same,” says Knesek.

His boss agrees. Kompkoff says, “A lot of companies are trying to invent their higher purpose of what they provide to the world, and for us it’s right in front of us every day. It’s right there, and we love to be a part of it.”