You don't see this very often... Northern Pacific Airways looking to public for funding We've seen quite a few airline startups recently, and Northern Pacific Airways is among those. Northern Pacific wants to turn Anchorage into a transpacific hub connecting the United States and Asia using Boeing 757s. Essentially Northern Pacific hopes to replicate what…
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Free drinks for a year for $100 sounds like a great deal ! Except if they never actually fly anywhere! You'd think they could find regular investors if they have a great business plan, so asking the public to fill the gap seems worrisome.
Personally I don't see this as a big red flag but rather dinosaurs being pitched by millennials on crypto and trying to be cool. It does show that they have no clue on what they are doing.
Flycoin kids on the other hand, nice sell. You sold frozen meat to a dinosaur. You either disrupt or scam the dinos, but you already pocket the dough.
And for the love of energy waste, not everything can or should be on a blockchain. It doesn't make you look cool, it makes you look fool.
Raising money via Wefunder for this sized deal when the world is awash in institutional money? A quarter billion dollar+ valuation for a company with a claimed run rate of $90M and no mention of profitability? I can imagine how the smart money might think these guys have a very high opinion of themselves so management decides maybe the public will be more forgiving.
They are definitely targeting amateur investors. aka. Robinhood people, or to the moon crypto and NFT.
The pitch deck screams tech startup valuation not airline valuation.
15x in 5 years, LOL!!!
And somebody please explain this statement? I can't really B/S or spin this one as a positive.
"3. High fuel prices increase Northern Pacific's cost advantage."
Richard Branson once said how do you become a millionaire in the airline business? Start as a billionaire.
I personally think there is an opportunity for a transpacific airline based in Alaska.
Given the unique geography, it is impossible for any narrow body aircraft to operate given the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean and no mid-points.
Alaska offers minimal back-tracking and can potentially link secondary cities in Asia to those in the US/Canada.
That being said, Northern Pacific’s 757 are not the right aircraft for this mission- given their fuel efficiency. It would be quite different if they had access to A220s or A321 XLRs that I assume are part of the plan.
If Northern Pacific can stay afloat for the next few years- they may just make it!
Reward based crowd funding is more of a marketing tool particularly for larger capital intensive businesses like airlines. It is not serious investing! I see it as closer to gamification!
As cash strapped as they may be, Northern Pacific probably knows that 100 dollars isn’t going to change their fortunes!
What it may do however is to create a community of brand loyalists and captive clients who are more likely to patronise the airline and refer others- not just because of the few drinks but because they are part of a start up story and feel a sense of ownership.
Is it a publicity stunt? Absolutely- however it is smart strategically, ground breaking and has got people talking- they have earned organic real estate on your portal as well. 😉
I was in my early 20s when I first heard the terms "long and skinny" and "hub and spoke" with respect to airline route-structures, and the thing I noticed way back then, is that these terms were always used as if they aligned as a natural dichotomy. And even at the time I thought that was madness. The future of air travel, it seemed to me, was with a route structure that was *both* long-and-skinny *and* a hub-and spoke. You'd never fill even a small plane from Dayton to Wuhan, but you'd have a lot less trouble filling a plane from Dayton to Anchorage if everyone on it was connecting to some different Dayton on the other side of the world. And the best part is that your competition wouldn't really be established carriers; it would be the extra two-hours of drive time to get from Dayton (e.g.) to a bigger airport like Cincinnati.
That's reasonable. The issue is predicting what cities on both sides of the oceans.
The only thing I can imagine is that since they are flying short legs due to the stop in Alaska they are claiming they don't have to carry as much fuel as a long flight so they don't have to burn the fuel to carry the weight of that fuel.
You think too much about finding a Dayton or a Wuhan (which is actually larger than NYC).
At the end of the day, airlines like this can only compete on only 1 thing, Price.
Norwegian, WOW couldn't maintain that advantage and becomes history.
I'm not saying this airline will fail. There are still slim chances and only if they play their hands correctly. But so far what I'm seeing, I'd rather buy PowerBall.
I thought it was funny at the time, until he sold Virgin America to Alaska for $4B.
I like the idea. I am biased living in Anchorage as I want another easy route for travel. Asian travel to Alaska is huge. It's thought conceiving under the northern lights will make your child lucky or something. Asian money already visits Alaska at odd times of the year in droves. Looking at the current state of no fly zones with Russia and the lifting of COVID restrictions in Asia I'm liking the first mover advantage here. Alaska also has a large workforce of aircraft mechanics / pilots / aviation industry and a college geared towards the industry. This might actually work.
This screams of a scam. At least it's not the EV company I saw last week fishing for investors through ads. Do they not realize how expensive running a company is?
Just hoping the smaller communities of Alaska do not suffer again, in some unexpected disruption, dysfunction, or insolvency this organization seems to have potential for.
Just getting the remnants of RAVN Alaska, back in the air and to not anywhere near all the communities if formerly served in the past seems challenge enough at a company rediscovering its new wings.
Small communities in Alaska are the real real concern of this decidedly optimistic business plan.
I think it's a good plan. My grandfather was a pilot, and he made quite a few nonstop flights from Alaska to Japan. Of course, that was a long time ago, they were never happy to see him and he didn't land.