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MINERALS YEARBOOK, 1967 
 
Sound-Alaska was operating direct Alaska service from the 48 States with
no unloading or reloading required at Seattle. The new vessels were expected
to increase hydrotrain capacity as much as 40 percent. 
 Plans announced by the fledgling chemical industry on the Kenai Peninsula
appeared to more firmly establish year-round shipping service to Anchorage,
pioneered by Sea-Land Service in 1965. Collier Carbon & Chemical Co.
had plans for one or, perhaps, two huge oceangoing barges to move ammonia
and urea to West Coast ports. Japan Gas-Chemical Co., an equal partner with
Collier in the urea project ordered a special ship for shipment to the Far
East. Both companies planned 12month ship movements. 
 The trend toward consolidation of airlines in Alaska continued. The merger
of Pacific Northern Airlines and Western Airlines, initiated in 1966, was
completed. The merger of both Cordova Airlines and Alaska Coastal Airlines
into Alaska Airlines, plans for which were announced in April, was proceding
at yearend, approval of the merger was expected. Alaska Coastal served the
panhandle from Skagway to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, with connections
to most of the settlements on the Islands of the Alexander Archipelago. Cordova
served the Anchorage-Copper River area, Dawson in the Yukon Territory, most
of the Kenai Peninsula, and the Anchorage-Cordova-Yakutat-Juneau run. Alaska
Airlines was a 
main carrier between Seattle and Anchorage and Fairbanks with runs to McGrath,
Nome, and Kotzebue. Thus, the new combination covered most of the populated
regions of the State. 
 In a second action, Wien Air Alaska and Northern Consolidated Airlines were
in the process of merging; the new organization was to be known as Wien Alaska
Airlines, Inc. Findings by a Civil Aeronautics Board examiner were that the
merged lines would make possible onecarrier service between 4,200 pairs of
points in Alaska. One-plane service between all or even a majority of such
pairs of points was not deemed practical, but improved service was expected
as a result of the merger. The new line would tie together an area one-sixth
the size of the 48 contiguous States. 
 Developments in airfreighting continued to move forward. Alaska Airlines,
which pioneered the use of the Hercules C—130 propjet in moving oil-well
drilling equipment to the North slope in 1965, airlifted a drill rig capable
of going to 20,000 feet from Kenai to Painter Creek in the Bristol Bay area.
The rig was broken down into palletized, 46,000 pound units. On the return
trip, heavy equipment used to build the airfield was freighted. At mid-year
thrice weekly Hercules all-cargo flights from Seattle to Sitka, Anchorage,
and Fairbanks began. Twice weekly service from Anchorage to Nome and Kotzebue
was started also.