SeaPort Airlines used the callsign "Sasquatch"[1] to communicate with air traffic controllers. The carrier played off this in early 2013 when it introduced "Roger, The SeaPort Airlines Sasquatch" as the airline's mascot.
As of November 2013, SeaPort Airlines received $13,879,930 in annual Federal subsidies for Essential Air Services that they provided to rural airports in the U.S.[3]
On February 5, 2016, the airline announced it had filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy after being forced to reduce its route network.[4] Normal day-to-day operations were set to continue during the company reorganization.[5] The company filed a plan to emerge from Chapter 11 on July 12, 2016.[6] However, on September 20, 2016, the company went out of business after its Chapter 11 bankruptcy was converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation.[7]
Until January 2016 the airline also had a Southwest region with destinations in California and Mexico.
Pacific Northwest service
SeaPort's Pacific Northwest Service at its Portland International Airport (PDX) hub was historically targeted at commuters between Seattle and Portland wishing to avoid congestion at the larger Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the main commercial terminal at Portland International Airport. In late 2011, SeaPort began to reinvent its business model and the carrier ended its namesake route between Seattle (Boeing Field) and Portland on January 27, 2012.
As part of this business shift, on January 15, 2012, SeaPort Airlines began nonstop flights between Portland International Airport and North Bend/Coos Bay utilizing Cessna 208 Caravan single turboprop engine aircraft.
In February 2013, SeaPort Airlines announced that its EAS contract for service to McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport in Jackson, Tennessee, had been extended by the U.S. Department of Transportation through January 31, 2014. The carrier had been awarded a one-year (rather than the typical two-year) contract due to the low number of passengers that used the flights operated by the previous carrier providing EAS, which had put Jackson’s continued eligibility for subsidized air service at risk. Service was extended but ended on June 26, 2015.[13]
By July, 2014, EAS service began to Great Bend, Kansas with flights to Kansas City and Wichita, Kansas. The Wichita flights ended by April, 2015.
In November, 2014, Seaport began service from Memphis and Nashville to Tupelo, Mississippi and on January 12, 2015 service began from Nashville to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, both under EAS contracts. Both had ended in late 2015.
Following the 2014 phaseout of the Wright Amendment and the opening of a new terminal at Dallas Love Field, SeaPort had to share a single gate with Virgin America and lost its access to a permanent ticket counter; the resulting inconvenience and flight delays prompted SeaPort to transfer the Texas–Arkansas flights from Love Field to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in September 2015.[14]
On January 16, 2016, SeaPort ceased service to Salina, Great Bend, and Kansas City, citing a nationwide shortage of regional airline pilots.[15]
Southwest service
On May 1, 2013, the airline began service connecting Imperial/El Centro to San Diego and Burbank. The EAS contract was awarded to SeaPort in January 2013, replacing the incumbent carrier SkyWest Airlines, which linked Imperial to Los Angeles.
In July 2014, SeaPort Airlines announced it would begin nonstop service between Burbank and San Diego on October 1, with four weekday flights each way, and reduced service on weekends.
Later the airline added service to Sacramento and Visalia as well as its first international destination, San Felipe in Mexico.
SeaPort ceased all operations in California and Mexico on January 15, 2016.[15]
