Departure
88%
vs 95% ▼ 7
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Deadhorse Airport (PASC/SCC) sits on Alaska's North Slope beside Prudhoe Bay, serving as the aerial gateway to the Arctic Ocean oil fields at the northern end of the Dalton Highway. It is an uncontrolled field with two paved, lit runways and an ILS approach, handling everything from scheduled Alaska Airlines jet service to bush and helicopter operations supporting the oil industry.
Deadhorse Airport lies in the town of Deadhorse on Alaska's North Slope, close to Prudhoe Bay and the Beaufort Sea coast, and is owned and operated by the State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Northern Region. It functions as the principal air link for the Prudhoe Bay oil fields, combining scheduled passenger and freight service with a large volume of general aviation, air taxi and helicopter movements supporting oilfield logistics. For a simulator pilot, the appeal lies in its stark Arctic setting, its long paved runways built to handle jet traffic in an otherwise remote and road-limited region, and the presence of an ILS approach at such a high-latitude field.
Deadhorse is an uncontrolled airport with no operating control tower, situated in the airspace overlain by Anchorage Center, which can be reached on 134.4 MHz. The field is reached by road from Fairbanks via the Elliott and Dalton highways, and lies immediately adjacent to the Prudhoe Bay oil field development on the Arctic coast. There are no other airports of significance nearby; Deadhorse is the dominant aviation facility for the entire North Slope region.
Deadhorse has two parallel hard-surfaced, lit runways. The primary runway, 06/24, is 6,473 ft in one direction and 6,472 ft in the reciprocal, and is equipped with an ILS on runway 06. A second parallel runway, 06L/24R, measures 6,445 ft in each direction and is also lit but without an instrument approach. Field elevation is 62 ft.
Deadhorse broadcasts an ATIS on 118.4 MHz. The common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) is 123.6 MHz, and UNICOM is available on 123 MHz. A flight service station frequency of 122.2 MHz is also published. Anchorage Center can be contacted on 134.4 MHz for enroute and approach services. An ILS is available for runway 06, supporting instrument approaches into the field.
There is no control tower at Deadhorse, so arriving and departing traffic operates using the CTAF on 123.6 MHz and, where relevant, UNICOM on 123 MHz for advisories. Pilots should be alert to wildlife hazards on and around the airfield, as the airport has a recorded history of strikes with caribou and various bird species using the surrounding tundra.
The airport sits adjacent to the town of Deadhorse and the Prudhoe Bay oilfield infrastructure, with the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean coastline immediately to the north, providing an unmistakable landmark when approaching from any direction across the flat North Slope tundra.
Deadhorse Airport first opened in April 1970 to serve the developing Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Wien Air Alaska introduced Boeing 737-200 jet service to the field in the early 1970s, flying nonstop to Anchorage and Fairbanks, and by 1984 was operating through service all the way to the Lower 48 via Fairbanks, Anchorage, Seattle, Oakland and Phoenix. Western Airlines briefly served Prudhoe Bay with nonstop jet flights to Anchorage in early 1982, and Alaska Airlines began service in December 1981 with 737 flights to Anchorage and Fairbanks, later operating a multi-stop routing linking Prudhoe Bay with Anchorage, Cordova, Yakutat, Juneau, Sitka and Seattle. Also in 1982, Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines cooperated on an interchange service running from Tulsa through Wichita, Denver, Portland, Anchorage and Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. By 1985 MarkAir was flying nonstop 737 service to Anchorage, Fairbanks and Barrow.
Alaska Airlines and its regional partner Horizon Air remain the dominant scheduled carriers, together accounting for the large majority of passengers, alongside Wright Air Service, which links Deadhorse with Fairbanks, Kaktovik, Nuiqsut and Utqiagvik, and smaller operator 70 North. The airport is also home to the Deadhorse Aviation Center, opened in 2012 by Fairweather LLC, which provides hangar, terminal and cargo-handling facilities along with a large aviation and equipment staging yard, supporting oil company clients and government agencies including the U.S. Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Alaska Air Guard. The State of Alaska has been progressing an airport master plan addressing drainage deficiencies and wildlife-strike risk to bring the field into compliance with current FAA design standards.