[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 160 (Thursday, October 5, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6342-S6343]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Alaska Airlines ``Combi'' Planes

  Mr. President, I know I have occupied a little bit of time on the 
floor this afternoon with a wide range of topics--from the tragedies 
that face many of our indigenous women to recognizing a prominent 
leader of the Alaska community. Now I wish to share a little bit of 
Alaska's history as we see a transition in aviation and transportation.
  It is really the end of an era in my home State. On October 18, just 
a few days from now, Alaska Airlines will fly the final run of the 
uniquely Alaskan combi plane before retiring them and updating the 
fleet.
  OK. She is going to make a floor speech about an airplane. Yes, I am 
going to make a floor speech about an airplane because this combi plane 
is a special Boeing 737-400, designed to carry up to 14,000 pounds of 
cargo and 72 passengers. It is called a combi because it is a dual-use 
plane, a combination of passengers and cargo. Alaska Airlines is the 
only major airline in the country to have these combi planes, and they 
were specifically designed for the special challenges of a very large 
State. Over their lifespan, they have delivered every imaginable thing 
via airplane in Alaska.
  You have all heard me talk about the size of our State. The sheer 
size of this State presents logistical hurdles unlike anyplace else. I 
keep saying we are one-fifth the size of the country, and 80 percent of 
our communities are not connected by road. When we think about how we 
move around in our State, a postage stamp placed in the middle of an 
average sheet of paper represents the area a person can reach in Alaska 
by coastline, river, road, or railroad. The rest is only reachable by 
plane. You just have to fly everywhere. This being the case, it only 
makes sense to try to efficiently deliver people and goods to hub 
communities in Alaska. Alaska Airlines is looking to serve. This is not 
a promotion for them; it is a recognition that they needed to figure 
out how to move people and freight, and they reconfigured the aircraft 
to do this.
  What makes these planes so special is, they can carry up to four 
large cargo containers. We call them igloos. These igloos load into the 
front portion of the aircraft, right behind the pilots. There is a 
simple divider between the cargo and the passengers. So they load the 
cargo up front, and the passengers come up the back on a set of steps, 
just like we used to do in the prejetway times. You load from the back, 
but your first 17 rows of a traditional aircraft would be occupied by 
cargo. If you have more cargo--if you are flying fish out from Cordova 
south or if you are flying your Iditarod dogs that have been dropped in 
Nome and need to get back to Anchorage and you need a lot of space for 
the animals, you have flexibility to move back and forth.
  These have flown all over the State, up to Nome, on the Bering Sea 
coast, along the Arctic Ocean, to the oilfields in Prudhoe, and, most 
famously, in the ``milk run'' area. The milk run got its name because 
Alaska Airlines literally delivered the milk to the communities along 
the way, as well as other food stuff--all manner of goods and 
passenger. It is something that if you are from the southeast, we all 
know about the milk run. We all complain about the fact that it takes 
about 5 hours to get from Anchorage down to Juneau, if you have to go 
through Yakutat and Cordova and stop at each one. That is just the way 
it is. You bounce down from Cordova, Yakutat, Juneau, Ketchikan. 
Finally, you hit Seattle. You run into your sports teams, families are 
coming and going. These are the workhorses that are not only moving the 
passengers, they are moving the groceries, they are moving the mail, 
they are moving the medicine. They are moving it all.
  When I say it moves everything, we have built up a little bit of 
history about how things move around. We have moved cows. We have moved 
cars. The picture I like best is moving the herd of Santa's reindeer. I 
think Santa was actually posed in this, but the reindeer were not. They 
needed to be able to move the reindeer so they hauled them in the 
front, situated them, and closed it off, and you have the passengers in 
the back. Whether you are moving reindeer, whether you are transporting 
an injured eagle to the Raptor Center in Sitka or letting the sled dogs 
hitch a ride back to Anchorage after they have made the thousand-mile 
trip to Nome, this is what we do.
  The invention of the combi plane really highlights the unique needs 
and the parameters of daily life in the State. We are a long way from 
the lower 48. You can barely drive to any of the communities. If you 
are going to move goods, if you are going to move passengers, you are 
on an airplane. Whether it is Essential Air Services, bypass mail, air 
freight, these are the backbones of commerce in Alaska. This is our 
interstate. It is the interstate in the air.

[[Page S6343]]

  Whether we are shipping our wild caught, sustainably managed salmon 
that people around the world love to eat, we ship that out. We ship in 
the toothpaste, the loaves of bread, and the basics that we need. 
Thanks to the combi, we have been able to do this with regular, 
reliable scheduled service in areas where the weather would usually 
chase off more. These are smaller aircraft. They can handle it all. The 
size of the combi allows them to land and take off in much more 
turbulent conditions than smaller propeller planes.
  So it is a kind of bittersweet time for some of us who have grown up 
around these aircraft. As we think about the ``only in Alaska'' type of 
things, it is encouraging to know that this development of retiring the 
combi planes--the proposal is to replace them with separate, full-sized 
passenger and cargo planes. As a result of the increased demand for 
goods and passengers, we need more space on planes to deliver both. If 
updating the fleet means that we need and get more business in Alaska, 
I suppose that is a good thing for all.
  There are many of us who are going to be bidding a fond farewell come 
October 18, which is the last scheduled flight for the combi. It is 
also Alaska Day in our State. I thank Alaska Airlines and those who fly 
these great planes and do so safely. They provide a level of service 
and have for so long. I thank them for what they have done over the 
course of so many years.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.