Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport is a state-owned, public-use airport located west of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Sitka, a city and borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. The airport is named after Sitka's former mayor

Rocky Gutierrez ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the Rocky franchise, ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weather ...

. It features a single terminal with jetway with air service operated year-round by Alaska Airlines and seasonally by Delta Air Lines regional affiliate Delta Connection operated by

SkyWest Airlines SkyWest Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah, United States. SkyWest is paid to staff, operate and maintain aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by a partner mainline airline. The ...

. There is a single paved runway located on a causeway that juts off Japonski Island. Deceased tuberculosis patients from the nearby SEARHC/Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital were buried on airport grounds and had to be relocated during construction. That section of the airport is still unofficially called The Mausoleum. As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 68,197 passenger boardings (enplanements) in

calendar year Generally speaking, a calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. A year can also be measured by starting on any o ...

2008, 62,498 enplanements in 2009, and 64,536 in 2010. It is included in the

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2015-2019, which

categorized Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by associating them to a ...

it as a ''primary commercial service (nonhub)'' airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year) based on 68,222 enplanements in 2012.

Facilities and aircraft

Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport resides at elevation of 26 feet (8 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 11/29 with an asphalt surface measuring 7,200 by 150 feet (2,195 x 46 m). For the 12-month period ending January 2, 2011, the airport had 23,100 aircraft operations, an average of 63 per day: 43% air taxi, 43% general aviation, 8% scheduled commercial, and 6% military. At that time there were 30 aircraft based at this airport: 70% single- engine, 13% ultralight, 10% military, and 7% multi-engine. The airport also has hangars and offices for local air traffic control, the

Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a congressionally chartered, federally supported non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded mem ...

, and various private enterprises. U.S.

Coast Guard Air Station Sitka Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, Commanded by Commander Vincent J. Jansen, is an Air Station of the United States Coast Guard located in Sitka, Alaska. The station was originally established on Annette Island in March 1944, until relocating to Sit ...

also has a complex attached to the airport for their helicopters but their rotary-wing aircraft based in Sitka seldom use the runway for takeoffs and landings. Safety hazards include ocean waves washing onto the runway during storms, high winds because of its exposed location, and large flocks of birds that live very close to the airport. Due to these hazards, the airport is listed by airfarewatchdog.com as one of the ten most thrilling landing experiences in the world.

Historical airline service

Alaska Airlines has served Sitka for over 50 years. In 1967, Alaska Air was operating

Boeing 727-100 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter f ...

jet service into the airport on a round trip routing of Seattle - Sitka -

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

- Unalakleet - Nome - Kotzebue and was also flying Convair 240 propliner service nonstop to Juneau. By 1969, Alaska Air had added several stops on the route between Seattle and Alaska, and was operating a Boeing 727-100 jetliner on a round trip routing of Seattle - Sitka - Juneau - Yakutat - Cordova - Anchorage - Unalakleet - Nome - Kotzebue in addition to operating Convair 240 service on a round trip routing of Annette Island Airport - Wrangell -

Petersburg Petersburg, or Petersburgh, may refer to: Places Australia *Petersburg, former name of Peterborough, South Australia Canada * Petersburg, Ontario Russia *Saint Petersburg, sometimes referred to as Petersburg United States *Peterborg, U.S. Virg ...

- Sitka - Juneau. Over the years, Alaska Air also operated Boeing 727-200 and 737-200 jets into the airport before switching to later model Boeing 737 jetliners. In 1986, Anchorage-based AirPac was operating jet service into the airport with a British Aerospace BAe 146-100 aircraft flying a round trip routing of Seattle - Sitka - Anchorage.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Alaska Airlines operates

Boeing 737-700 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boein ...

and 737-800 jetliners while Delta Connection did fly the

Canadair CRJ-700 The Bombardier CRJ700, CRJ900, and CRJ1000 are a family of regional jet airliners that were designed and manufactured by Canadian transportation conglomerate Bombardier (formerly Canadair) between 1999 and 2020. Their design was derived from t ...

regional jet operated by SkyWest, but starting with the 2017 and 2018 summer seasons, it's been flown by the Embraer 175 also operated by SkyWest. In addition to providing passenger service, Alaska Airlines also operates Boeing 737-700 all-cargo jet freighter flights into the airport.

Top destinations

Media appearances

* Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport is the destination in the mission "Sitka Approach" supplied with '' Microsoft Flight Simulator X''. * In the 2009 movie '' The Proposal'', scenes purportedly at Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport were actually filmed at

Beverly Regional Airport Beverly Regional Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located in Beverly, Danvers and Wenham, Massachusetts, in Essex County, three nautical miles (6 km) northwest of Beverly's central business district. The National Pla ...

in Beverly, Massachusetts, near Boston, Massachusetts.IMDB Filming Locations: "The Proposal"

References

External links

Topographic map
from USGS '' The National Map'' * * Aircraft Owners and Pilots Associationbr>airport information for Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport
{{Sitka, Alaska Airports in Sitka, Alaska