In June, 1991 Alaska Airlines began its first regularly scheduled service to the Russian Far East, flying their Boeing 727-200. (Later MD-80s were utilized,twice weekly in summer, once weekly in winter).
While Alaska had been intermittently offering charters or special flights to the region for twenty five years, they were ready to cross the boundary into setting up stations and scheduled seasonal and later year round services.
Magadan and Khabarovsk (Vladivostok was added in 1993) were selected as initial service points.
My responsibility at Alaska then, determined my presence on the inaugural service. I was escorting fifty invited representatives of American companies, that had interests in Soviet Far East business potential, mainly in oil, mining and financial markets. Most of the Soviet Far East had been closed to westerners since the early Cold War, so literally, decades.
My group side-tripped off to Sakhalin Island and Vladivostok after the inaugural for more meetings. We traveled by Aeroflot Tu-154 and Tu-134 on those segments.
The mainstay of the traffic was Alaska Airlines Vacations clients who were embarking on a trip of a lifetime, like a journey back in time. A truly unique opportunity for well traveled people!
Alaska’s experiment in connecting the USSR to the US was cut short by the political upheaval that was to follow in forthcoming years. (The USSR became a commonwealth of nations, then a post communist quasi Democracy during the 1990s, causing major disruption in its economy.
During the scheduled service era, Alaska, added Yutzno-Shakhalinsk and Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky in an effort to stimulate additional traffic.
The service ended in 1999, mainly because it didn’t fit into Alaska’s core business plans and its continued operation exceeded staffing, logistics and safety protocols.
