Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Provincetown Municipal Airport sits at the very tip of Cape Cod, a small public field surrounded by National Park land and dune country a couple of miles from the town centre. It offers a single hard-surfaced runway with an ILS approach, making it a manageable but characterful VFR or IFR destination for pilots exploring the Cape.
Provincetown Municipal Airport is a small public-use aerodrome at the northern tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, about two miles northwest of the town's central business district. It is owned by the National Park Service and operated by the Town of Provincetown, and is used for general aviation traffic as well as by Cape Air, which runs seasonal commercial flights to Boston. For a simulator pilot, the appeal lies in its dramatic setting at the end of the Cape, surrounded by dunes, beaches and water on three sides, combined with an instrument approach and a genuine slice of New England aviation history.
The airport lies at the far northern end of Cape Cod, two miles (about three kilometres) northwest of downtown Provincetown, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. It sits on land leased from the National Park Service, within the Cape Cod National Seashore area, giving it a distinctly remote, coastal character despite its modest size.
The airport has a single physical runway, 07/25, of hard (paved) construction and lit for night operations. Runway 07 is 3,478 feet long and is equipped with an ILS, while Runway 25 is 3,668 feet long. Field elevation is 7 feet above mean sea level.
Pilots can expect to work Cape Approach/Departure on 118.2 MHz, with an AWOS-3 automated weather observation available on 119.025 MHz. Clearance delivery (OTIS) is available on 120.65 MHz, and the common traffic advisory frequency/UNICOM is 122.8 MHz. Runway 07 is served by an ILS/DME as well as RNAV (GPS) approaches, while Runway 25 has NDB and RNAV (GPS) approaches.
Traffic pattern direction differs by runway: left-hand traffic is flown for Runway 07, and right-hand traffic for Runway 25. Runway 07 is also fitted with a MALSF approach lighting system with sequenced flashers to assist on the approach, while Runway 25 has none. Both runways have precision markings, runway end identifier lights, and a four-light PAPI on the right offering a 3.00-degree glidepath, though the VGSI and descent angle are not coincident on either runway, so approach planning should take account of this.
The airport is easily identified from the air by its position at the very end of Cape Cod, ringed by dunes, beaches and open water, with the town of Provincetown and its harbour visible a couple of miles to the southeast. There are no additional published visual reference points beyond this general geography.
The airfield was built in the 1940s, with its runway first paved in 1948; the original curved, jug-handle-shaped taxiway transitions were designed to suit tail-dragger aircraft such as the DC-3 that operated there through the 1940s and 1950s. In 1949, Provincetown-Boston Airlines (PBA) began scheduled service between Provincetown and Boston using Cessna Bobcats. Through a series of mergers, PBA was eventually absorbed into People Express and then Continental Airlines, which cancelled the Provincetown-Boston route in 1988. Cape Air began operating that same year and has served the airport ever since. The current single-storey wooden terminal building dates from 1998.
The airport remains in active use for general aviation, averaging around 136 operations a day, the great majority of it transient GA traffic, with a small proportion of commercial, air taxi, local GA and military movements. Ten aircraft are based there, eight single-engine and two multi-engine. Cape Air continues to provide seasonal non-stop flights to Boston's Logan International Airport, with services roughly every 45 minutes on summer weekends, and also acts as the field's fixed-base operator, handling aircraft parking. The airport is managed by the Town of Provincetown's Airport Commission and is open daily from 9:00 a.m.