Rust’s Flying Service
Our History
It all began in 1963, when retired Air Force Colonel and WWII vet Henry “Hank” Rust founded Rust’s Flying Service using a two seat Piper Super Cub to fly hunters and fishermen to remote areas of Alaska. As times changed, so did this little business. Rust’s Flying Service added airplanes to accommodate more fishermen, hunters, flight seers, and Alaska’s growing tourism industry.
Rust’s Flying Service is now run by Hank’s sons, Todd and Colin Rust, along with Suzanne Rust. The Rust family purchased K2 Aviation in 1996 and have grown the single plane business to a fleet of 22 aircraft between the two companies.
According to the FAA, together Rust’s Flying Service and K2 Aviation is the largest off airport air carrier in the United States serving over 25,000 passengers annually.
According to the FAA, together Rust’s Flying Service and K2 Aviation is the largest off airport air carrier in the United States serving over 25,000 passengers annually.
K2 Aviation
Kitty Banner & Kimball Forrest
In 1979, Kitty Banner and Kimball Forrest purchased Holland Air Service, renaming the company to K2 Aviation after the first letters of their first names. Their primary goal as an air taxi was transporting climbers to and from Denali in a single Cessna 185, N1292F, which is still in our fleet today. Together, they transported mountain climbers, surveyors, and hunters into the backcountry.
Kitty first visited Alaska as a teenager and fell in love with the landscape and people. After receiving her pilot’s license, at 22, she began her career as a bush and glacier pilot in Alaska. Kitty was one of the first women pilots to co-found and co-own an Alaskan Air Taxi service.
Kimball learned to fly when he was a teenager, earning most of his ratings while still in high school. Between his junior and senior years of college, Kimball made his way to Alaska to fly commercially in Kotzebue. After his stint in Kotzebue, Kimball started juggling graduate school for geology while running K2 with Kitty.
While Kitty and Kimball operated the business for a short time, selling in 1981 so Kimball could focus on school, their legacy lives on in the name K2.
Jim & Julie Okonek
In 1981, Jim and Julie Okonek purchased K2 Aviation. After realizing there was a market for tourists to see the beauty of the Alaska Range, they pioneered flight seeing in Talkeetna with K2 Aviation becoming the go-to company for Denali flight seeing even piloting the first iMax crew to film there.
”Flight seeing hadn’t materialized in Alaska yet at all. It hadn’t occurred to anyone that people would pay good money just to go look at something. We realized there was a market for sharing the beauty of the area with visitors. It was a hard sell at first. The weather had to cooperate for one thing. I used to get up at 5 a.m. and drive a half mile to see if there was clear weather at the mountain. I would call into a radio show at the exact time every morning to announce if it would be a good day for a flight seeing trip or not.”
Jim was a helicopter pilot for the Airforce involved in rescue operations in Alaska, which allowed him to meet a lot of people in the air taxi business. After retiring from the Airforce, Jim flew for Hudson Air Service in Talkeetna before purchasing K2 Aviation when it came up for sale.
Todd, Colin, & Suzanne Rust
In 1996, the business was purchased by the Rust Family making K2 Aviation the Talkeetna station of Rust’s Flying Service.
Todd Rust joined his father at Rust’s Flying Service in1983, after earning a college degree and working as an aeronautical engineer for two aerospace manufacturers. Todd’s brother, Colin Rust earned his FAA Airframe and Powerplant certificate in the late ‘70s, eventually taking on the role of director of maintenance at Rust’s Flying Service in 1996.
Suzanne started her career in aviation working at the National Transporation Safety Bureau Anchorage office while attending college. When the Rust family purchased K2, she focused on building a team that would put passenger and pilot safety first while sharing one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Around the same time that Colin Rust joined Rust’s Flying Service, Todd and Suzanne Rust heard that K2 Aviation was for sale. They saw it as an opportunity to expand and diversify Rust’s Flying Service from a mostly floatplane operation, which would nearly double the fleet overnight.
Within the year, the deal was done, and K2 and its fleet were acquired. Both companies were eventually enveloped into a single FAA certificate, operating from two different stations. The Rust Family has been running K2 Aviation for the last 28 years.