New Pacific Airlines is a brand new transpacific airline that recently just completed its inaugural flight in July 2023.
The airline is planning on providing service from destinations in the United States to the Far East with a layover stop in Alaska.
In this article, we will take a look at Northern Pacific’s business model, its aircraft, and amenities, and discuss some of its early flight reviews.
Update (11/22/2023) – Northern Pacific Airways has rebranded as New Pacific Airlines. The company ran into an issue with a trademark and lost its case forcing the airline to rebrand.
What is New Pacific Airlines Planning to Do?
New Pacific Airlines was born under the Ravn Alaska brand, which operates flights to destinations throughout Alaska.
The goal of this new airline is to make affordable travel to the Far East, Alaska, and the domestic United States possible.
They plan to utilize Anchorage, Alaska as its departure point for transpacific flights. The idea is to have stopovers in Alaska. Some quick connections to far east-bound flights. Others will depart several days later so customers can leave the airport and experience the best that Alaska has to offer.
The airline wants to create a stress-free travel experience. It plans on providing exceptional customer service and excellent in-flight amenities.
Where is New Pacific Airlines going to Fly to?
New Pacific Airlines is trying to be the “Icelandair” of the Pacific. Icelandair provides flights from the United States to Iceland which can give passengers a break instead of being stuck on a plane for 6+ hours it takes to fly direct to mainland Europe.
According to Northern Pacific’s website, the airline is looking to fly from various destinations throughout the United States such as New York, Florida, Nevada, and California, and terminate in destinations in the Far East like Japan or South Korea. Following the Icelandair model, these flights will be routed through Anchorage, Alaska for a brief layover.
Right now, New Pacific Airlines is in the process of getting approval to start serving these routes to Asia.
However, in July 2023, they began service between Ontario, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada to serve as trial runs as the airline starts the process of streamlining their flight operations and working out the kinks.
Update – Since the summer of 2023, New Pacific Airlines added two more destinations to its route network. The airline is now providing service to Reno, Nevada, and Nashville, Tennessee.
What Aircraft Does New Pacific Airlines Fly?
New Pacific Airlines Flies Used Boeing 757s
New Pacific Airlines has purchased 4 Boeing 757s from American Airlines which acquired those during their merger with U.S Airways in 2013.
Despite being aged aircraft, Northern Pacific completely renovated the cabins in the planes’ interior with new upholstery, making these 757s look brand new.
The airline hopes to be operating 12 Boeing 757s by the time the airline is ready to begin transpacific service.
The 757 is an Excellent Plane Choice for Business Model
The Boeing 757 is an excellent choice for this type of flying. The aircraft has been a very popular aircraft to fly throughout its history, some even referring it as handling like a “sports car.”
It is built with powerful engines and was designed to operate from shorter runways. That is perfect for airfields in Alaska or in the far east, which may not have long runway lengths as they do in the United States. Also, if there are obstacles to clear like Mountains during takeoff, the 757 can climb steeply to avoid.
The only downside to flying with the Boeing 757 is its range. The 757-200 is capable of only flying about 3300 miles. That’s a little more than the distance between Boston and Los Angeles. Operating this type of aircraft across the Pacific will require the fuel stop in Alaska which Northern Pacific has already acknowledged and addressed.
New Pacific Airlines Alaska-Themed Livery
The aircraft features a beautiful black and white livery with blue and green winglets. Northern Pacific decided on black and white because it symbolizes the night sky, ice, and snow.
The inclusion of blue and green winglets is supposed to represent the Northern Lights found in Alaska.
What Amenities Does the Airline Provide?
A lot is still to be learned about what exactly New Pacific Airlines will provide as amenities for their flights.
Product Available for Purchase
Based on the limited information provided by their website, it appears they do have some product offerings being showcased. The website shows images of NP-branded snack bags, neck pillows, and even macaroons.
Seating Configurations
According to early flight reviews, the 757 cabin will be split up into two seating configurations. There is going to be a premium class containing seating in a two by two configuration.
However, the majority of the seats will be configured as economy in a 3 by 3 seat setup.
Also shown from videos of the inaugural flight is the inclusion of wifi on board and USB charging ports underneath the seats.
Inflight Entertainment
Currently, Northern Pacific’s aircraft don’t have an inflight entertainment system found on the seatback facing the passenger. There are plans for them to add some in the future. For the time being, customers can access movies by connecting to wifi on their personal electronic devices.
New Pacific Airlines Navigation Club
One thing that is generating some hype around this airline is the flight lounge being set up in Anchorage, Alaska. Northern Pacific hasn’t released much information about the lounge beside it being called the “Navigation Lounge” and some leaked photos. The photos showed some tables, chairs, and a bar with a gold screen in the backdrop.
This lounge is designed to make customers that are waiting for connecting flights as comfortable as possible.
So far, How Has New Pacific Airlines Been Reviewed?
The reviews of New Pacific Airlines have been quite favorable so far. However, amongst flight reviewers who participated in the inaugural flight, the overall consensus is that a 40-minute flight from Ontario, California to Las Vegas, Nevada is not enough time to properly assess the airline.
It is also not enough time for the airline to showcase exactly what it plans to do in the future.
Northern Pacific plans to fly people to Alaska, and then fly them overseas to Asia. Flights will take hours. A 40-minute short domestic hop is simply not a long enough sample size to truly estimate what New Pacific Airlines will bring to the table.
However, flight reviews have said they were excited about the energy the airline brings to the table. They met and heard speeches from company executives who are very passionately involved in growing the airline. They even commented about how excited the flight attendants were.
Conclusion
There is a lot of buzz around New Pacific Airlines. During its first flight, it was the most tracked flight of that day on aircraft tracking sites like Flightradar24.
It’ll be interesting to see the airline operate at its fullest potential when they do begin transpacific service.
For the time being, we have to be partial to the fact that the airline is currently operating short-haul flights that don’t really give anyone enough time to come to a full conclusion of whether the airline is worth flying on or not.
However even considering the short window of time, flight reviewers have been pleasantly pleased with the airline.
Your Weekend Travel will update you on any recent developments of this blossoming airline.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pacific_Airways
https://simpleflying.com/leaked-northern-pacific-anchorage-lounge/
