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Raised in the airline industry, Caitlin Hunter’s no stranger to helping make a passenger’s travel day fly by smoothly. She joined her mom at SkyWest Airlines in 2005, doing anything and everything that was needed.

“You name it, I’ve done it. Working the ticket counter. Loading bags. Pushing the airplane out. Being a gate agent. I’ve done everything but fly the airplane,” Caitlin explained in a break between customer service calls.

Five years ago, she joined the �鶹��Ƶ family as a Seasonal Customer Service Agent. “Kenmore is a great place to work. I absolutely love it here,” she said. A people person through and through, Caitlin’s upbeat attitude made her a perfect fit for working with customers and she was quickly hired on year-round at the Lake Union seaplane terminal.

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Mari Peterson was born to fly. It’s in her blood. Her great grandfather was a Navy pilot during World War II. And growing up, her dad flew the family’s small airplane.

“He would cruise around in it and commute to Seattle for work. I practically grew up sleeping in the backseat,” Mari told me as she flew one of �鶹��Ƶ’s Cessna Caravan at 4,500 feet over the San Juan Islands.

Yet despite her family lineage, Mari didn’t grow up with dreams of flying professionally. She spent the majority of her formative years living on San Juan Island — riding horses, playing tennis, and cheering for the local high school. She did take a ground school class (a pilot training class) offered through school, but didn’t pursue her pilot’s license immediately.

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You have a good chance of seeing Sarah at any one of �鶹��Ƶ’s three Seattle terminals. As the Operations Manager, she oversees all aspects of each location. And every location benefits from her guidance and leadership.

When you ask Sarah what does your job entail she smiles and says that’s a great question. She has a hand in quite a few departments including Kenmore Dispatch (the department that schedules and directs planes), Line Crew (the team responsible for fueling, cleaning, and docking aircraft), and she is responsible for inputting flight schedules and fares.

Her main job in the busy summer months is adjusting capacity. Additionally, Sarah helps coordinate the aircrafts’ 100-hour and annual inspections to ensure safety. To say her role involves wearing many hats is putting it mildly.

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Emily Mamales is the woman at �鶹��Ƶ who makes (nearly) any adventure possible. As �鶹��Ƶ’s Charter Specialists and Group Sales Manager, she helps customers plan everything from surprise proposals to unique fly-away adventures.

“I get to help people plan unique adventures,” says Emily. “That’s one of the things I love most about my job.”

�鶹��Ƶ’s regular service flies pre-determined routes and times. The flights Emily plans tend to be a little more extraordinary.

“With charter flights, we can customize the experience,” she explains. Emily works with businesses to create unique team bonding experiences; she helps excited partners plan surprise engagements; families fly to remote vacation homes; and boaters to remote coves in the BC Islands.

“As long as there’s protected space to land and takeoff, we really can do just about anything,” says Emily.

However, not all destinations have a dock that can handle a seaplane, Emily warns. (Docks must have a profile no taller than three feet to allow for wing clearance.) “If there’s no dock available, we may be able to land on the beach or do a boat transfer,” she says.

As a boat owner, Emily is very familiar with boat transfers. She and the love of her life, Steve, live aboard a 42-foot Grand Banks. Steve will often take their motor yacht to a remote location, such as the BC Islands or the San Juans. Emily will fly in to meet him, allowing her to maximize her vacation time.

“That’s one of the great things about seaplanes. The seaplane lets you travel back and forth between the city, so your boat can become your vacation home,” she says. But Emily cautions, the boat used for transfers must have the same low profile as a seaplane dock.

This year, Emily hopes to go to the Broughton Islands. “It’s supposed to be absolutely stunning,” she explains. Because their boat takes roughly a week each way, Emily will likely fly up and meet Steve. “The flight is also a really good way to bring some perishables, like fruits and vegetables or a favorite wine, which can be hard to get when you’re at a remote location,” says Emily.

Emily also gets to create unique packages. “Kenmore’s really given me the freedom to be creative and they’ve been excited about my ideas. I appreciate that a lot,” she says. Emily’s introduced an annual Mother’s Day flight to Kiana Lodge. She’s helped arrange Father’s Day volcano flight tours. And this year, Emily introduced a new seaplane picnic package.

“The picnic packages are fabulous. We’re working with great caterers and we go to remote beaches. It’s an experience you’ll never forget,” she says.

Emily developed her passion for travel in her former career. As a Banking Consultant specializing in mergers and acquisition projects, she was constantly on the road. Moving where work took her, she learned that the best way to experience a new place was to dive in feet first and explore what looks most interesting. It’s this same principal she uses when designing tours and trips.

Her background in translating ‘tech speak’ into everyday terms has helped her simplify the charter process for customers. “Sometimes it can be difficult to understand why a dock won’t work, how plane availability affects scheduling or what limitations there are for carrying capacity,” she says. “While we do have a lot of flexibility, we’re also not the traditional commercial airline most passengers are used to. So sometimes we just need to help customers familiarize themselves with what makes Kenmore so unique, which is one of the bonuses of flying with us. The entire trip is a special experience.”

She’s a woman, but when Michelle Cowan climbs into a seaplane, she is a pilot first. As �鶹��Ƶ’s first, full-time female pilot certified to fly the entire fleet, she gets some curious looks from passengers. But she simply smiles and says, “The stripes don’t mean flight attendant.”

Outside of the cockpit, Michelle loves to teach. In October of last year, she combined her two passions by accepting the role as not only a Captain, but �鶹��Ƶ’s Chief Flight Instructor.

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