Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Fairbanks International Airport (PAFA/FAI) is a state-owned, tower-controlled airport serving Fairbanks, Alaska, and the wider Interior region, with a long ILS-equipped main runway and a network of shorter strips used heavily by regional bush operators. For a simulator pilot it offers a distinctive Alaskan mix of scheduled jet traffic, float and ski operations, and proximity to genuine Arctic flying country.
Fairbanks International Airport is a state-owned, public-use airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, operated by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. It functions as a hub for several regional carriers, including Everts Air, Warbelow's Air Ventures and Wright Air Service, which fan out from Fairbanks to dozens of small communities across Interior and Arctic Alaska. The field is of particular interest to simulator pilots for its combination of a full-length ILS runway serving jet traffic alongside shorter paved, gravel and seasonal ski/water strips reflecting its role as a gateway to the bush.
The airport lies about three miles southwest of downtown Fairbanks, within the South Van Horn census-designated place in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. It sits within controlled airspace served by its own control tower, approach and departure control, and clearance delivery, and a listed frequency for Eielson Range Control points to coordination with nearby Eielson Air Force Base airspace to the southeast.
Fairbanks International has three physical runway pairs. The main runway, 02L/20R, is a hard-surfaced, lit strip roughly 11,030 feet long equipped with an ILS. A parallel runway, 02R/20L, is a shorter hard-surfaced, lit runway of around 6,480 feet. A third strip, 02/20, is a hard-surfaced runway of 2,867 feet with no lighting listed. Field elevation is 430 feet.
Fairbanks is served by a control tower on 118.3 MHz, with ground control on 121.9 MHz and approach control on 118.6 MHz. Departure control is listed on 32.71 MHz, and clearance delivery is provided separately. Automated weather is available via ASOS on 119.025 MHz, ATIS on 124.4 MHz and AWOS on 108.2 MHz, with a TWEB broadcast on 127.6 MHz. Flight Service is on 122.6 MHz, UNICOM is on 122.95 MHz, and a miscellaneous frequency of 125.3 MHz is listed for Eielson Range Control. The main runway, 02L/20R, is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
Fairbanks International Airport opened in 1951, taking over the scheduled airline traffic that had previously used the military's Ladd Army Airfield. Alaska Airlines made Fairbanks its main Alaskan hub through the 1950s, flying to Seattle and Portland as well as to Anchorage and Nome, before shifting its hub to Anchorage by 1967. Pan American World Airways had served Fairbanks since 1932, having acquired Pacific International Airways, and had ambitions as early as 1931 to use the field as a stepping stone to Asia, though negotiations with the Soviet Union and then the Second World War delayed this for decades; Pan Am eventually used Fairbanks as a transpacific stopover between New York, Seattle and Tokyo from September 1969 until the Civil Aeronautics Board ended its Alaska rights in 1965 for other routes. In the 1970s and into 1982, Alaska Airlines partnered first with Braniff International and then with American Airlines on interchange services linking Fairbanks with the Lower 48 via Anchorage, Seattle and Dallas or Houston. Japan Airlines and Korean Air used Fairbanks as a transpacific cargo technical stop from the late 1970s. Condor began a seasonal nonstop service to Frankfurt in 2001, briefly making Fairbanks the smallest US city with scheduled non-stop international flights. A new terminal, built to modern security standards with six jet bridges, opened in October 2009, replacing the original 1948 terminal building.
Fairbanks International remains a busy regional hub, home to Everts Air, Warbelow's Air Ventures and Wright Air Service, which serve a wide network of Interior and Arctic Alaska communities, alongside mainline service from Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines and seasonal United Airlines flights, and cargo operations. Air North offers seasonal charter flights to Dawson City, Canada. According to the airport's operator, the field is open 24 hours a day, with administrative offices open Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm.