Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (PANC) is Alaska's principal gateway, sited some five miles southwest of downtown Anchorage. It offers three long, hard-surfaced runways with ILS approaches, and its history as a trans-Pacific refuelling stop earned it the nickname "Crossroads of the World". For a simulator pilot it combines big-airport procedures with dramatic Alaskan surroundings and heavy cargo traffic.
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, identified as PANC, serves Anchorage, Alaska, and is operated as a state facility. It is one of the busiest cargo airports in the world and a historic refuelling and stopover point for trans-Pacific and transpolar flights, which makes it a rewarding destination for simulator pilots interested in both heavy international operations and Alaskan flying. Its three parallel-oriented runway pairs, all equipped with lighting and instrument approaches, give it the feel of a major international hub set against Alaska's rugged terrain.
The airport lies about five miles southwest of downtown Anchorage. It sits adjacent to Lake Hood, described as the world's largest and busiest floatplane base, which forms a notable feature of the local area for anyone flying in the vicinity. The field's coordinates are 61.1741 N, 149.998 W at an elevation of 118 feet.
PANC has three physical runways, each a parallel pair of hard-surfaced, lit strips. Runway 07R/25L is the longest at 12,377 feet, with an ILS serving 07R. Runway 15/33 is listed at 11,143 feet on the 15 threshold and 10,674 feet on the 33 threshold, also lit, with an ILS on runway 15. Runway 07L/25R measures 10,565 feet, lit, with an ILS on 07L.
Radio services at PANC include Approach/Departure on 119.1 MHz and 123.8 MHz, ATIS on 118.4 MHz, an AWOS/TWEB on 114.3 MHz, Clearance Delivery on 119.4 MHz, Ground on 121.9 MHz, Tower on 118.3 MHz, and Unicom on 122.95 MHz. Kenai Radio provides Flight Service on 122.2 MHz and remote flight service on 122.55 MHz. A miscellaneous frequency of 1133 MHz is listed for San Francisco ARINC, and 140.15 MHz for a facility identified as Camper. The airport is equipped with instrument landing systems on runways 07R, 15 and 07L.
The adjacent Lake Hood floatplane base is a prominent and useful landmark for pilots operating in the vicinity of the airport, given its scale and activity. Downtown Anchorage lies a short distance to the northeast, roughly five miles away, providing a further reference point when transiting the area.
The airport opened in 1951 and quickly became known through the 1950s for service by Alaska Airlines, Northwest Orient, Pacific Northern Airlines and Reeve Aleutian Airways, using aircraft ranging from Douglas DC-3s to Boeing 377s. From 1955 to 2011 the eastern end of the airport's southernmost runway connected to the Kulis Air National Guard Base. By the mid-1980s the airport had earned the nickname "Crossroads of the World", as it became a common refuelling stopover for airlines flying between Europe and East Asia, since airspace over China, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc was closed to Western carriers and early jet and widebody aircraft lacked the range for non-stop Pacific crossings. Carriers using Anchorage this way included Air France, British Airways, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, Sabena, Swissair and Spantax, alongside Japan Airlines, Korean Air and Scandinavian Airlines, the latter having opened a transpolar Copenhagen-Tokyo route via Anchorage in February 1957. The opening of Soviet airspace under Gorbachev's glasnost policy in the late 1980s, together with the arrival of longer-range aircraft such as the Boeing 747-400, brought an end to most of this stopover traffic by the early 1990s, though Korean Air continued limited seasonal service until 2006 and China Airlines used Anchorage as an intermediate stop until 2011. The airport was renamed in 2000 by the Alaska Legislature in honour of long-serving US Senator Ted Stevens, who himself survived a crash at the airport in 1978 in which his wife Ann was killed.
PANC remains a major hub for passenger and, especially, cargo operations, serving as a base for carriers including Alaska Airlines and major freight operators such as FedEx Express, UPS Airlines, Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo. It continues to handle scheduled and charter traffic between Asia, Europe and North America, and its adjoining Lake Hood facility supports extensive floatplane activity. Given its scale and mix of airline, cargo and general aviation traffic, pilots should expect an active, professionally controlled environment typical of a major international airport.
