This is a brief explanation of why Haines – and not Juneau – deserves and needs better ferry service. Haines is a small town with limited resources; no hospital, limited dental, no jetport, no auto, truck, snowmobile, outboard, boat, RV dealerships, no “big box stores,” etc., whereas Juneau is a full-service, small city and the jet and ferry transportation hub for the entire Panhandle, not to mention our state’s capital.
From the 1940s until the early 1970s, Coastal Ellis Airlines, flying twin-engine, amphibious aircraft, was the only airline serving the Panhandle. In 1970-71, the Civil Aeronautics Board merged all of Alaska’s small airlines into one dominant airline, Alaska Airlines. Then they built the airports at Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and Sitka, thus ending salt-water operations. In 1973, Alaska Airlines started jet service to Ketchikan and Juneau. In 1978, the airlines were deregulated, the small-town airports were expanded to handle jets and the Essential Air Service Act was enacted to serve all of Southeast except Haines. Today, all major towns in Southeast except Haines get twice-daily jet service and scheduled ferry service. To compound this problem, the ferry schedule favors Juneau, which does little to no business with Haines. The new ferry rescheduling proposal would correct this long overdue oversight.
Dave Werner