Fox Aircraft to serve relocated Alaskan village

Alaskan air taxi operator Fox Aircraft may go ahead with plans to provide a scheduled charter service to Mertarvik, a small Yup’ik village taking shape on Nelson Island in Western Alaska following the relocation of residents from Newtok village near the Bering Sea, which has become uninhabitable due to melting permafrost, sinking tundra, and advancing erosion. This follows after the US Department of Transportation (DOT), on June 1, 2021, awarded Fox Aircraft a “Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity” to operate scheduled interstate charter flights and/or foreign air transportation of persons, property, and mail, using small aircraft (no more than 60 seats or a maximum payload capacity of no more than 18,000lbs/8,165 kgs). According to its December 2020 application, Fox Aircraft is a Part 135 operator based in Bethel, a remote regional hub for surrounding native villages in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta. It is owned and operated by former Ravn Alaska (7H, Anchorage Ted Stevens) pilots Steve Fox (50%) and David Bartlett and his wife Jonna (50%). Fox initially formed the company in 2007, flying hunters to and from lodges and conducting sightseeing tours. He suspended operations in 2018 to take care of his terminally ill wife. In 2020, he resurrected the company in partnership with Bartlett, a former Ravn pilot now out of work. The initial plan was to operate aircraft the two managers already owned. These aircraft were leased from the owners to Fox Aircraft as needed. The reorganised company began contract operations in July 2020 and was immediately profitable. Bartlett is also a part-owner and flight instructor at Great Circle Aviation (SXZ, Carlsbad, CA). Already operating on-demand services at present between Bethel and Mertarvik, Fox Aircraft proposes three scheduled flights twice weekly between the two points. A third of the population of Newtok comprising 21 households totalling 137 people has already been relocated to Mertarvik, with additional housing and facilities being added continuously. Facilities at Mertarvik currently include a landing strip, fuel storage tanks, a diesel power plant, a water treatment facility, a barge landing, and 21 homes. The carrier proposes to use its existing fleet of four aircraft, comprising one Cessna (single piston) 182, N2010G, and one Piper (twin piston) PA-32R, N4375B, both owned by Fox; one Cessna 207, N104K, owned by Bartlett; and one company-owned Piper PA-31, registration N46FA. Traffic projections assume 25% of the 2019 Newtok levels. Annual revenue for the service is forecast at USD222,898 and expenses at USD188,677, with an expected operating profit of USD34,221. The total liquidity needed for the service is USD47,169. According to the new approval, Fox Aircraft is authorised to operate between any point in any state, territory, or possession of the US or the District of Columbia and any other point in any of those entities. However, its authority is limited to Part 135 (charter) operations. Should it wish to institute Part 121 (scheduled) operations, it would first need to be declared fit to do so.