Though we hadn’t officially promoted cargo flying to Cold Bay, thanks to some quick work from the Anchorage cargo team and our Cold Bay team, on Wednesday, we transported our first shipment via GoldStreak for TelAlaska Inc. TelAlaska is a telecom company in the Aleutian Islands and Western Peninsula area.
On Tuesday, Bob Barnett from TelAlaska reached out to Jeff Munro, general manager of Anchorage cargo, to see if there was any possibility of moving some equipment to Cold Bay to help the Aleutians East Borough School District Internet Project in False Pass.
Munro quickly coordinated the shipment and arranged for it to fly to Cold Bay on Wednesday. Barnett was extremely grateful to Munro and the Anchorage cargo team. He wrote the following message.
“Jeff, I am very appreciative Alaska Airlines was able to accommodate TelAlaska on this GoldStreak shipment … We moved the freight last night to your facility without a hitch and are moving crew along with the freight today to Cold Bay. It’s been over 20 years for me hoping and wishing for a large commercial air carrier being able to serve this new area. Both with passengers and freight. TelAlaska has been serving Cold Bay and the surrounding communities out of Cold Bay for over 50 years and is very excited to have Alaska Airlines helping us out in providing the latest telecommunication and broadband services to this area. Once again thank you and all the crew that made this possible.” – Bob Barnett
We officially start inbound-only GoldStreak service to Cold Bay on Saturday utilizing the belly space on the twice-weekly passenger flights.
Cold Bay is an Air Force location, so the airport has a long runway, making it an emergency diversion airport for many airlines flying over the state of Alaska. The long runway allows us to operate our Boeing 737s, which is something we can’t do with the short runway in Unalaska.
While the community of Cold Bay only consists of around 130 residents, its central location allows passengers from Unalaska, False Pass, King Cove, Port Moller and other small communities served by Grant Aviation to connect to our flights.
