Kenmore Air: an aviation icon, built for what comes next

Founded on the shores of Lake Washington in 1946, Kenmore Air has spent 80 years finding better ways to connect people with the Pacific Northwest.

What began with three friends and a single floatplane has grown into the largest seaplane airline in the United States, carrying more than 90,000 passengers annually and connecting Seattle with island communities and destinations throughout Washington State and British Columbia. Its operation today spans scheduled seaplane and landplane service, scenic flights and private charters.

It's an airline built around a geography unlike almost anywhere else, and an operation that doesn't fit neatly into a conventional airline template.

An airline shaped by the Northwest

For many Kenmore Air passengers, the alternative to flying would be hours of driving and taking a ferry. Kenmore turns those journeys into flights measured in minutes.

Its seaplanes connect Seattle directly with waterfront communities throughout the San Juan Islands and British Columbia, while its wheeled aircraft extend the network from Seattle's Boeing Field. The result is a business built around access: reaching places quickly and directly while making the journey itself part of the experience.

That distinctive model also creates unusual technology requirements. Kenmore needed a platform capable of supporting the realities of its operation without forcing decades of operational knowledge into a conventional airline template.

Modernizing the technology without standardizing the airline

Kenmore Air uses CitizenPlane to support booking, operations management, reporting and more, giving its team a modern operational foundation while preserving the flexibility required by its network. For Kenmore, modernisation means giving its people better tools to manage what makes the airline different.

"Kenmore Air has always been about making the Pacific Northwest more accessible, turning hours of driving and ferry travel into a short flight and an experience people remember. The technology behind that journey needs to make travel just as seamless while giving us the flexibility to operate a business that's anything but conventional. CitizenPlane helps us do that, supporting how we operate today while giving us a platform we can continue to build on for the future." Scott Meis, VP of Marketing, Kenmore Air

Technology that adapts to the operation

That philosophy is central to the partnership. After 80 years, Kenmore Air knows its operation exceptionally well. Technology's role is to put that expertise to work across reservations, operations and the passenger journey.

CitizenPlane provides the digital infrastructure behind the operation while Kenmore's pilots, dispatchers, agents and teams continue doing what they have done for generations: connecting people with some of the most remarkable places in the Pacific Northwest.

"Kenmore Air is exactly the kind of airline that demonstrates why flexibility matters. They have an incredibly distinctive operation, deep relationships with the communities they serve, and decades of operational knowledge. Our job is to give their team technology that supports that expertise rather than getting in its way." Benjamin Claveau, Head of Pre-Sales, CitizenPlane

Built for where Kenmore flies next

Kenmore Air has evolved continuously since 1946, from one floatplane on Lake Washington to a diverse regional airline serving passengers by both land and sea. CitizenPlane is helping provide the technology foundation for the next chapter.

Ready for technology built around your operation? Let's talk.