An avid aviation enthusiast, Howard Wright has
a private pilot’s license and enjoys flying in his
free time.
Lake Union. They purchased the land of
a competitor and opened the terminal
at 950 Westlake Ave N, where Beavers,
Otters and Caravans now take off and
land beneath the backdrop of the Space
Needle.
Lake Washington. They also started
selling Seabees, another photogenic sea-
plane which, under the skillful flying of
Munro and others, would make daring
glacial landings while in Kenmore Air’s
fleet.
Though based just outside Seattle,
Kenmore Air grew up alongside the
Northwest’s largest city and earned a
reputation for hard work and safe flying.
While Howard S. Wright Construction
Company was at work getting the city
ready for the Century 21 Exposition,
Kenmore Air was expanding their Air
Harbor on Lake Washington.
In 1959, Bob Munro announced that
Air Harbor was in a position to begin
construction on a new office and shop
building, built near the original hangar.
Chartered flights would increase over
the next few decades. During that time,
the cities surrounding Seattle also grew,
including Kenmore. The sleepy towns
on the edge of the lake were getting
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explore: NW | The Official Magazine for kenmore air | Spring 2019
busier, industries were growing, and
flight service expanded.
In the ’50s, Kenmore Air had also
started flights to the San Juan Islands.
The short flight from Air Harbor was ex-
actly what the community was looking
for when they wanted to connect with
the seemingly far-flung outposts of the
San Juan islands and beyond.
The ’60s and ’70s were challeng-
ing times in the Pacific Northwest. In
1971, a famous billboard asked, “Will
the last person leaving Seattle turn
off the lights?” Still, Kenmore Air and
the Wrights soldiered on, and the city
bounced back.
In the ’80s, Kenmore made anoth-
er expansion, this time towards the
waterfront just a couple miles from the
former site of the Century 21 Expo-
sition, the Seattle World’s Fair. The
company was growing, and room was
to be made for expanded operations, in-
cluding a seaplane terminal on Seattle’s
REACHING NEW HEIGHTS
In 2018, a new relationship between
Kenmore Air and the grandson of How-
ard H. Wright took root when Seattle
Hospitality Group invested in Kenmore
Air.
Seattle Hospitality Group was found-
ed in 2002 by H.S. Wright III, a grandson
of the men whose company shaped
much of Seattle’s modern-day skyline
and whose weekly flights introduced
him to what would become the largest
seaplane operator in the world.
As his father, grandfather, and
great-grandfather did before him, this
Wright also takes a personal interest
in businesses that would enhance the
city’s ethos of arts and culture. In the
years since building the Space Needle,
the construction business also built the
Columbia Tower, the tallest building
in the state. Though the construction
business has since been sold and its
headquarters moved, the company
retains its original name.
For visitors to the Pacific Northwest,
stops at the Space Needle and seaplane
flights with Kenmore Air often top their
travel lists. The history of the region is
intrinsically tied to these two icons, and
longtime residents will often conjure
the very image of the Beaver flying over
Lake Union with the Olympic Moun-
tains in the background as the perfect
shot to describe the Pacific Northwest.
The partnership established in 2018
between Seattle Hospitality Group
and Kenmore Air is the result of a
decades-long relationship between two
companies and the families that shaped
the Pacific Northwest.
For more than 70 years, two fami-
ly-owned companies shaped the Seattle
skyline and filled the sky. Their build-
ings and planes captured imaginations
and inspired people to look up and
dream higher. That legacy continues
today as old partners discover new
possibilities.