Northern Pacific Airways aspires to offer connections between the Pacific Rim and the continental U.S. via Anchorage. However, the carrier will debut in June with a much less ambitious offering. 

The carrier’s inaugural service will be a short, weekly flight between Las Vegas and Ontario, Calif.  

Northern Pacific will fly to Las Vegas at 2 p.m. on Fridays beginning June 2 and bring customers back to Ontario at 2 p.m. on Sundays. Service will be in a Boeing 757-200 aircraft with domestic first class and economy cabins. The first-class cabin will offer 39 inches between rows, a metric known as pitch. Economy seats will have between 31 and 35 inches of pitch.

“This announcement today represents the achievement of a major milestone for Northern Pacific Airways,” CEO Rob McKinney said in a prepared remark. “The airline now has a live flight schedule, purchasable tickets, and refurbished aircraft ready to go, and I can’t wait for passengers to meet our team onboard and fly with us.” 

Fares are in the major GDSs and will soon be available via direct booking.  

McKinney initially announced plans for Northern Pacific in September 2021. The carrier, he said then, would initially fly a fleet of six to 12 Boeing 757s on one-stop service from Asian destinations such as Seoul, Osaka and Tokyo Narita to continental U.S. airports including San Francisco, Orlando, Las Vegas, New York JFK and Ontario. All flights would connect in Anchorage. 

Those plans have yet to materialize, due in part to challenges caused by the prohibition on Russian overflying that began after Russia invaded Ukraine last February, a Northern Pacific spokesman said. 

Along with the Ontario-Las Vegas flight, Northern Pacific is actively seeking casino partners for charter flights, the spokesman said. 

The carrier currently owns two 757-200s and expects to secure a third shortly.

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