Soldotna Airport is a city-owned, public 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 surface ...

located one nautical mile (1.85 km) southeast 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 ...

Soldotna, Alaska Soldotna is a city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. At the 2020 census, the population was 4,342, up from 4,163 in 2010. It is the seat of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Soldotna is located in the Southcentral portion ...

Facilities

The airport is located along the south bank of the

Kenai River The Kenai River called ''Kahtnu'' in the Dena'ina language, is the longest river in the Kenai Peninsula of southcentral Alaska. It runs westward from Kenai Lake in the Kenai Mountains, through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and Skilak Lake ...

in the southeastern corner of Soldotna city limits, and also adjoins the

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife habitat preserve located on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, United States. It is adjacent to Kenai Fjords National Park. This refuge was created in 1941 as the Kenai National Moose Range, but in 198 ...

. Road access to the airport is via Funny River Road, a short distance east of its intersection with the

Sterling Highway The Sterling Highway is a state highway in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Alaska, leading from the Seward Highway at Tern Lake Junction, south of Anchorage, to Homer. Route description Construction of the highway began in 1 ...

. The airport covers an area of at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 113 feet (34 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

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, as ...

designated 7/25 with an asphalt surface measuring 5,000 by 132 feet (1,524 x 40 m). For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2006, the airport had 15,050 aircraft operations, an average of 41 per day: 80%

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 ...

, 20%

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) an ...

, and <1%

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 ...

. At that time there were 47 aircraft based at this airport: 92% 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 gen ...

, 2% multi-engine and 6%

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

Airline and destinations

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Alaska Aeronautical Industries (AAI), a commuter air carrier, was operating scheduled passenger service to Anchorage (ANC) with

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...

turboprop aircraft.

North Pacific Airlines North Pacific Airlines (NPA) was a commuter air carrier formed in 1987 which operated scheduled passenger service on behalf United Airlines via a code sharing agreement as a United Express carrier initially from the Seattle–Tacoma Internationa ...

(NPA), a commuter air carrier, operated scheduled passenger service to Anchorage during the early and mid-1980s with

Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general aviati ...

aircraft. In 1987, South Central Air (SCA), also a commuter air carrier, was operating scheduled passenger service between the airport and Anchorage flying as Western Express on behalf of

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 N ...

via a

code sharing In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

agreement with

Piper Chieftain The Piper PA-31 Navajo is a family of cabin-class, twin-engined aircraft designed and built by Piper Aircraft for the general aviation market, most using Lycoming engines. It was also license-built in a number of Latin American countries. Ta ...

twin prop aircraft. By 1988, South Central Air was continuing to serve Soldotna on an independent basis with flights to Anchorage, and by 1989 service to Anchorage was being operated by another small commuter air carrier, Inlet Airlines. The airport currently does not have any scheduled passenger air service. The airport also served as the hub for

Rediske Air Rediske Air was a small air taxi charter airline operating out of Alaska. History Rediske Air was formed in 1991. It was started by Charlie Rediske, a local pilot. In 2001, Charlie Rediske died, and his son Walter and his daughter Lyla became ...

, a local

air carrier.

Aviation accidents and incidents

*On February 4, 1985, North Pacific Airlines Flight 1802, a Beechcraft BE65-A-80 Queen Air N50NP, on a regularly scheduled flight from Anchorage to Soldotna, crashed southwest of the airport while on approach to land. All nine on board (seven passengers and two flight crew) were killed. *On July 7, 2013, an air taxi crashed, killing all ten people on board. The single-engine

de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, short take-off and landing ( STOL) aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada. It was conceived to be capable of performing the same roles as the earlier and ...

, registered to

of nearby

Nikiski Nikiski is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 4,456 at the 2020 census, down from 4,493 in 2010. Geography Nikiski is located at (60.707891, -151.262646) on the west side of the ...

, had a pilot and nine passengers aboard.

References

External links

* Airports in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska {{Alaska-airport-stub