Proposed sea plane service from Grand Marais to IR

[fonixmunkee]

I'm excited about this proposal:

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4 ... sle-royale

Although I think the leading sentence of the article is a little rude to our friends who provide boat service to IR...

[Tom]

Interesting. I'm trying to decide who they see as their primary market... once we see ticket prices, that might provide clarity. For hikers (a frugal bunch), if you're going to Windigo, I can't imagine this being as tempting. Rock Harbor, sure; as it would be for the lodge contingent.
I know from both this forum and talking with others, there seems to be a transportation barrier in getting to the locations that can get you to the island... Unless you are in driving distance to a dock or the current Houghton Airport, it's not as easy to plan a trip to the Isle, which seems to start to exclude the folks (or adds significant costs/planning, like if you have to rent a car to only leave it parked for five days) from the further locations.
I don't know how the specifics of being a concessionaire with the NPS works, but I would love to see them offering a service (perhaps not daily, but based on business need or request) from an airport that someone can reasonably fly into from another commercial carrier. However, maybe that's a bit too much gas from say, Duluth/Superior.

[Ingo]

.. but I would love to see them offering a service (perhaps not daily, but based on business need or request) from an airport that someone can reasonably fly into from another commercial carrier. However, maybe that's a bit too much gas from say, Duluth/Superior.

Service from Minneapolis would be great ! Heck it's usually twice as much to get to Duluth (or Houghton for that matter).

[Tom]

More detail: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHom ... ctId=63524

IRS proposes the following prices for Grand Marais Service
- Grand Marais to Tobin Harbor Round-Trip $380
- Grand Marais to Tobin Harbor One-Way $260
- Grand Marais to Windigo Round-Trip $290
- Grand Marais to Windigo One-Way $200