Start-up carrier Northern Pacific Airways is seeking to raise US$5 million through a crowdfunding investment campaign as it gears up for its launch.

The Alaskan airline has its first revenue flight pencilled in for later this year, linking the US and Asia with a stopover in Anchorage – using second-hand Boeing 757 aircraft.

The flights are expected from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, and Las Vegas, to Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya Japan as well as Seoul, South Korea.

‘Only way to get stock in hands of Alaskans’

Asked about the unorthodox airline seed capital funding model, Rob McKinney, Northern Pacific Airways’ CEO, told FINN: “We don ‘t think that it’s the best way – we think that it’s the only way to get Northern Pacific stock in the hands of as many Alaskans as possible.

“We don’t want only wealthy people to have access to ownership in our airline.”

He added: “The crowdfunding raise as well as the concurrent traditional equity raise is meant to get us to the launch of Northern Pacific routes.”

Saving time and money?

Northern Pacific intends to operate on a similar model to that used by Icelandair, which links Europe and the US via Reykjavik.

Having to change planes will lengthen the total flight time for passengers, but McKinney has insisted the stop in Anchorage could save passengers time by allowing them to avoid immigrations checks in busier airports.

Northern Pacific’s CEO is also promising passengers cost savings, vowing to cut fares by around 20 per cent compared with ticket prices for comparable journeys today.

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