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McCarthy Airport (PAMX/15Z) is a state-owned, public-use airfield serving the small community of McCarthy in the Copper River Census Area of south-central Alaska, close to the boundary of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It offers a single hard-surfaced runway and supports a mix of general aviation, air taxi and subsidized scheduled traffic in one of Alaska's more remote and scenic corners.
McCarthy Airport is a state-owned, public-use aerodrome situated at McCarthy, Alaska, and is the principal air access point for this small community deep within the Wrangell-St. Elias region. It handles a blend of general aviation, air taxi and federally subsidized scheduled flights, making it a useful and characterful stop for pilots exploring the interior of Alaska.
The airfield lies in the Copper River Census Area of Alaska, about one nautical mile northeast of the central business district of McCarthy. It sits within a remote, largely uncontrolled airspace environment typical of rural Alaska, with no nearby major controlled airspace noted in available sources.
McCarthy Airport has one physical runway, 01/19, with a hard surface measuring 3,976 feet in length. There is no ILS available at the field. Field elevation is 1,526 feet.
No communications frequencies are published for McCarthy Airport, and there is no instrument landing system. Pilots should plan on operating without ATC or published radio services at the field.
McCarthy Airport has long served as the air link for the McCarthy area, with scheduled passenger service historically supported under the federal Essential Air Service program. A series of U.S. Department of Transportation orders between 2003 and 2012 selected and re-selected Ellis Air Taxi, Inc. (later doing business as Copper Valley Air Service) to provide subsidized flights linking McCarthy with Gulkana and May Creek, reflecting the airfield's role in sustaining connectivity for this isolated community over more than a decade. For the twelve months ending January 2010, the airport recorded around 1,400 aircraft operations, an average of 27 per week, split roughly 64 percent general aviation and 36 percent air taxi.
McCarthy Airport continues to support scheduled passenger service, with Copper Valley Air Service operating to Gulkana and Wrangell Mountain Air flying to Chitina under the Essential Air Service arrangement. The field otherwise sees a mix of general aviation and air taxi traffic typical of a small Alaskan community airstrip; the runway has in the past been maintained only irregularly during the winter months.
