If you travel between Seattle and Portland, and you don't mind flying in a nine seat, single-engine turboprop, then you can be one of the first to say that you've taken a flight on America's first truly green airline.
At least, that's how Portland, Oregon-based SeaPort Airlines sees it. The airline, which opened up shop in June and uses a fleet of three small planes to shuttle passengers between Portland International and Seattle's Boeing Field, has partnered with the Columbia Land Trust, a big name in Pacific Northwest land conservation, to offset all emissions generated by its flights.
Rather than buying into a traditional offset scheme, SeaPort is getting green by donating the cash that it would otherwise spend on offsets to the Columbia Land Trust's Working Forest Initiative, which works to save large tracts of forests in the Northwest from commercial development.
"We wanted to put that money into an environmental project that is local, tangible, and provides a long-term benefit to the Pacific Northwest," said Kent Crafor, CEO of Seaport. "In the Columbia Land Trust, we've found an organization doing just that."
It's a cool plan, and part of the reason SeaPort can do it is that the airline flies an enviro-friendly little plane called the PC-12. Built in Switzerland by a company called Pilutus, the PC-12 is a single engine prop-plane that's 47 feet long and 14 feet high with a wingspan of 53 feet. It has a maximum altitude of 30,000 feet, a maximum cruising speed of 300 miles per hour, and a max passenger capacity of nine passengers and two crew. It's perfect for the 185 mile hop between Portland and Seattle.
But where the PC-12 really shines is in its fuel consumption, or rather its lack of fuel consumption. The average flight burns just 51 gallons, which means that even a small upstart like SeaPort can afford to throw down cash for the emissions it cranks out.
Photo: Pilutus Aircraft Ltd.
