The newest Anchorage-based airline is off the ground, although flights through its hub city might not begin until 2024. After the original early June launch date slipped, Northern Pacific Airways carried its first paying passengers on July 14 for a one-hour hop between Ontario, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Unfortunately, mechanical trouble canceled the return trip, so the airline scrambled for alternative transport and accommodations. The weekend round-trip enables the sister airline of Ravn Alaska to generate revenue while arranging routes between the Lower 48 and East Asia via ANC airport.
np.com

Batteries are included at a new power storage facility for Southcentral. Chugach Electric Association installed twenty-four Tesla Megapacks at its generating facility near Midtown Anchorage; Matanuska Electric Association is chipping in with a 25 percent ownership stake. The $63 million project is meant to provide a quicker backup than gas-turbine generators, but it will take until October of next year before the 80 MWh batteries are operational. The system could discharge enough electricity to power 15 percent of Chugach’s summertime demand for two hours.
chugachelectric.com | mea.coop

After sea ice severed Quintillion’s fiber optic cable 34 miles offshore in the Arctic Ocean on June 14, Anchorage-based telecom supplier Microcom reported its busiest day ever. Microcom is a retail outlet for Starlink, the satellite internet solution operated by SpaceX. The North Slope Borough declared an emergency due to the loss of communications and quickly ordered 25 Starlink units to restore service in affected villages. The state ordered 75 for its emergency response. Altogether, Microcom shipped 400 units in one day, according to a spokesman, compared to usual sales of a few dozen per day. Microcom has its own satellite internet company, Pacific Dataport, that is preparing statewide service via the Aurora 4A geostationary satellite launched in April. Starlink uses a different approach, with thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit.
microcom.tv

Alaska gets a $100 million share of federal funds to help rural areas connect to the internet. The US Department of Agriculture announced in June that four Alaska utilities are among thirty-three projects nationwide receiving grants from the ReConnect program. Interior and Mukluk Telephone Companies (both subsidiaries of Fastwyre Broadband, formerly Telalaska) each get $35 million; Copper Valley Telecom gets $17.9 million; and Matanuska Telephone Association gets $12.6 million.
fastwyre.com | cvtc.org | mtasolutions.com

A website covering news and events in Girdwood, Whittier, Hope, and Cooper Landing is hoping to get some ink on its fingers. Turnagain News, published by radio personality Jon Scudder and journalist Soren Wuerth, launched in May with a commitment to hyper-local reporting. Plans call for expanding into print editions this fall. The area between South Anchorage and the Upper Kenai Peninsula has been covered before by the Turnagain Times and Glacier City Gazette, but the latter paper ceased printing at the end of 2020.
turnagainnews.org

A Juneau company that distributes salmon, halibut, black cod, and caviar worldwide is now under tribal ownership. The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska purchased the Alaska Seafood Company. The transaction price was not disclosed. Tlingit & Haida President Richard Chalyee Éesh calls the investment a way to enhance the tribes’ economic sovereignty. In business since 1987, Alaska Seafood Company operates a small storefront in Juneau and distributes fresh, frozen, and smoked seafood through gift shops and big box retailers throughout Alaska and the Northwest.
ccthita.org

The Denali Center in Fairbanks is the first skilled nursing facility in Alaska to receive a Silver Achievement in Quality award from the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living. The ninety-bed facility is operated by Foundation Health Partners, which also runs the nearby Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Sixty-three skilled nursing care centers, eight assisted living communities, and one combined skilled nursing/assisted living providers in twenty-seven states achieved the Silver level of quality.
foundationhealth.org

The London-based company bringing broadband internet connectivity to rural Alaska using satellites in low-Earth orbit is joining with a not-for-profit organization that shares its vision. OneWeb is the newest member of the Connecting Alaska Consortium, which also includes software, digital infrastructure, and financial partners as well as the Alaska Native Village Corporation Association. With more than 600 satellites in orbit, OneWeb’s broadband network delivers high-speed connectivity to wholesale internet providers across Alaska through its preferred distribution partner, Pacific Dataport.
oneweb.net