Juneau is not a plane-rich place on the scale of Anchorage, and people in Juneau are more likely to invest in expensive boats than very-expensive airplanes. But even in the earliest days of biplanes, there were attempts to travel in Southeast Alaska by air, and early air routes were laid out and followed in the 1920's and 30's by Pan American and others.  There was service in the 1930's by seaplanes, small and heavy, and wheeled aircraft, even from Yukon Territory and British Columbia.

Local air traffic, often driven by tourism, is now thriving in Juneau. The helicopter traffic too much so. These aircraft were all photographed from the Mendenhall tidal flats near the Juneau airport. The airport runway was, incidentally, laid out by Charles Lindbergh in his capacity of aeronautical expert. (Its orientation was presumably not affected by his sociological and political orientation.)

Depicted here is a smattering of everything from light commerce (local air taxi and charter service to Hoonah and other Southeast communities), mainline service (Alaska Airlines), and the reassuring presence of a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 dropping out of leaden skies on final over Engineer's Cutoff.  

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Heat waves distort views of two landings on a very hot (by Juneau standards) day. 131A8595
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