Kodiak Benny Benson State Airport is a public and military use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located four

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Tod ...

s (5 mi, 7 km) southwest 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 ...

Kodiak Kodiak may refer to: Places * Kodiak, Alaska, a city located on Kodiak island * Kodiak, Missouri, an unincorporated community *Kodiak Archipelago, in southern Alaska * Kodiak Island, the largest island of the Kodiak archipelago ** Kodiak Launch C ...

, a city on

Kodiak Island Kodiak Island ( Alutiiq: ''Qikertaq''), is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second la ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

. The airport is state-owned and operated by the

Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) is a department within the government of Alaska. Its headquarters are in Alaska's capital city, Juneau. The mission of Alaska DOT&PF is to "''Keep Alaska Moving through service ...

(DOT&PF). It is home to the co-located

Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak is an Air Station of the United States Coast Guard located in Kodiak, Alaska. It is the largest in the service's Pacific Area, with a crew of 85 officers and 517 enlisted personnel, and the largest Coast Guard Ba ...

and a hub for

Servant Air Servant Air, Inc. is an American regional airline with operations throughout The United States and Alaska, USA. It operates domestic scheduled passenger and charter services. Its main scheduled airline service base is Kodiak Airport (PADQ) with ...

. On April 11, 2013, the Alaska State Legislature passed SB31, which renamed the facility "Kodiak

Benny Benson John Ben "Benny" Benson Jr. (September 12, 1912 – July 2, 1972) was an Alaska native, best known for designing the flag of Alaska. Benson was age 14 years old when he won a contest in 1927 to design the flag for the Territory of Alaska, ...

State Airport," in honor of the designer of the Alaskan flag. This airport 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 2011–2015, which categorized it as a ''primary commercial service'' airport. As per

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

records, the airport had 82,057 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 ...

2008, 78,375 enplanements in 2009, and 80,303 in 2010.

History

The airport is on the site of the former Naval Air Station Kodiak which was commissioned in 1941. NAS Kodiak was closed and placed in caretaker status in 1950, with the exception of runways and other facilities used by or conveyed to the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1947, a Coast Guard Air Detachment was commissioned at NAS Kodiak, which was formally named

in 1964. In 1971, the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

turned all airport runways and all remaining areas in caretaker status to the north over to the State of Alaska. CGAS Kodiak remains in operation at this location with four

HC-130 Hercules The Lockheed HC-130 is an extended-range, search and rescue (SAR)/combat search and rescue (CSAR) version of the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, with two different versions operated by two separate services in the U.S. armed forc ...

, five

HH-60J Jayhawk The Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawk is a multi-mission, twin-engine, medium-range helicopter operated by the United States Coast Guard for search and rescue, law enforcement, military readiness and marine environmental protection missions. It was ori ...

and five HH-65C Dolphin aircraft.

Facilities and aircraft

Kodiak Airport has three

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

-paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

s: 7/25 measures 7,533 by 150 feet (2,296 x 46 m), 11/29 is 5,400 by 150 feet (1,646 x 46 m), and 18/36 is 5,010 by 150 feet (1,527 x 46 m). For the 12-month period ending September 4, 2009, the airport had 40,949 aircraft operations, an average of 112 per day: 51%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

, 39%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, 6% scheduled commercial, and 4%

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

. At that time there were 55 aircraft based at this airport: 45.5% single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

, 14.5% multi-engine, 14.5%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

, and 25.5%

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Prior to its bankruptcy and cessation of all operations, Ravn Alaska served the airport from multiple locations.

Historical airline service

According to various editions of the North American

Official Airline Guide OAG is a global travel data provider with headquarters in the UK. The company was founded in 1929 and operates in the USA, Singapore, Japan, Lithuania and China. It has a large network of flight information data including schedules, flight st ...

(OAG) in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Kodiak was previously served by several airlines that operated jet service into the airport. These air carriers included

Western Airlines Western Airlines was a major airline based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and ...

with

Boeing 720B The Boeing 720 is an American narrow-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Announced in July 1957 as a 707 derivative for shorter flights from shorter runways, the 720 first flew on November 23, 1959. Its type certificate was i ...

jetliner flights nonstop to Seattle as well as

Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the sixth largest airline in North America when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the num ...

MarkAir MarkAir was a regional airline based in Anchorage, Alaska, that became a national air carrier operating passenger jet service in the United States with a hub and corporate headquarters located in Denver, Colorado."World Airline Directory." '' ...

and

Wien Air Alaska Wien Air Alaska (IATA: WC) was a United States airline formed from Northern Consolidated Airlines (NCA) and Wien Alaska Airways. The company was famous for being the first airline in Alaska, and one of the first in the United States; it ceased ope ...

with all three carriers operating

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

s nonstop to Anchorage (ANC) and AirPac flying

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...

BAe 146-100 The British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146) is a short-haul and regional airliner that was manufactured in the United Kingdom by British Aerospace, later part of BAE Systems. Production ran from 1983 until 2001. Manufacture by Avro International ...

jetliner service nonstop to ANC as well. Wien also operated

Boeing 727-200 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...

jets into the airport with direct, no change of plane 727 service from Reno (RNO), Portland, OR (PDX) and Seattle (SEA) in addition to nonstop 727 service from Anchorage (ANC). In addition, MarkAir served Kodiak with

Boeing 737-400 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...

jetliners and in 1994 was flying direct, no change of plane service with this aircraft type to Kodiak from the New York City area, Chicago, Denver and Seattle.Sept. 15, 1994 edition, North American Official Airline Guide (OAG), Kodiak schedules MarkAir flight 401 departed New York

Newark Airport Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union Co ...

(EWR) daily at 6:00am, made intermediate stops at Chicago

Midway Airport Chicago Midway International Airport , typically referred to as Midway Airport, Chicago Midway, or simply Midway, is a major commercial airport on the Southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, located approximately 12 miles (19 km) from the Lo ...

(MDW), Denver (DEN), Seattle (SEA) and Anchorage (ANC), and then arrived in Kodiak at 3:55pm. Kodiak also had nonstop service to Seattle in earlier years. From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s,

Pacific Northern Airlines Western Airlines was a major airline based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and ...

operated

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its press ...

propliners nonstop to Seattle and also direct to Anchorage as well via intermediate stops at Homer and Kenai. Pacific Northern was then acquired by and merged into

which continued to operate nonstop service between Kodiak and Seattle, first with the former Pacific Northern Constellation aircraft during the late 1960s (with Western also flying the Constellation direct to Anchorage at this time via a stop in Homer or stops in Homer and Kenai) and then with

jetliners during the early 1970s. Western subsequently ceased all service into Kodiak. By the late 1970s,

was flying nonstop

jet service to Seattle.http://www.timetableimages.com, June 15, 1979 Wien Air Alaska system timetable In 1994, Alaska Airlines was operating daily one-stop service to Kodiak from Seattle via Anchorage with a

jetliner with this flight also providing direct, no change of plane service from Phoenix (PHX) and Portland, OR (PDX). Alaska Airlines is currently the only air carrier operating jet service into the airport with Boeing 737 aircraft.

Statistics

Charters and tours

Charters are generally available to the Kodiak archipelago and Katmai coast. * Andrew Airways * Island Air Service * Servant Air

References

External links

Kodiak Military History: Airport

Airport diagram
from FAA Alaska Region * * ** {{Airports in Alaska Airports in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska