Airport type Public Hub for PenAir 12/30 4,100 Elevation 6.71 m Serves Unalaska | Location Amaknak Island Elevation AMSL 22 ft / 7 m Code DUT Phone +1 907-581-1786 | |
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Owner State of Alaska DOT&PF - Central Region Address Steller Sea Lion Protection Areas, Bering Sea Subarea - Pollock Restriction Area, Airport Beach Rd, Dutch Harbor, AK 99692, USA | ||
Tom Madsen (Dutch Harbor) Airport (IATA: DUT, ICAO: PADU, FAA LID: DUT) is a state owned, public use airport in City of Dutch Harbor, on Amaknak Island in the Aleutian Islands, off the coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located near the Bering Sea coast of Unalaska Island, 800 miles (1,300 km) southwest of Anchorage and 1,950 miles (3,140 km) from Seattle.
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The official name of the City of Unalaska's port is Dutch Harbor. That name is also applied to the portion of Unalaska on Amaknak Island, which is located across a bridge from the rest of the city on Unalaska Island. Therefore, the airport is sometimes referred to as Dutch Harbor Airport. In 2002, the State of Alaska renamed it Tom Madsen Airport in honor of Charles Thomas Madsen Sr., a bush pilot who was killed in an airplane accident that year. However, the Federal Aviation Administration still refers to it as Unalaska Airport.
Scheduled commercial airline service is provided by PenAir, a code share partner of Alaska Airlines. At one point Alaska Airlines operated Boeing 737-200 Combi jetliners to the airport with these aircraft transporting a combination of passengers and freight on the main deck of the aircraft. However, due to load restrictions as a result of the short runway as well as cancellations due to weather, Alaska Airlines then contracted the service via a code sharing arrangement to PenAir in 2004. PenAir currently operates Saab 340 and Saab 2000 regional turboprop aircraft into the airport. AirPac also previously served the airport with British Aerospace BAe 146-100 jets with this aircraft type having enhanced short runway takeoff and landing performance. The airfield runway is 4,100 feet long which is quite short for jet operations when compared with typical runways normally used by mainline jet aircraft. Other airlines that served the airport in the past included MarkAir operating Boeing 737-200 Combi jet aircraft and Reeve Aleutian Airways flying Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprops via a code sharing agreement with Alaska Airlines.
As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 28,234 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 26,705 enplanements in 2009, and 26,711 in 2010. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).
Facilities and aircraft
Unalaska Airport has one runway designated 12/30 with an asphalt surface measuring 4,100 by 100 feet (1,250 x 30 m). There is a microwave landing system (MLS) approach. The airport's runway is bordered on one side by a steep drop off into the ocean and the side of a hill on the other. Both ends drop off into open water.
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2007, the airport had 1,295 aircraft operations, an average of 25 per week: 85% scheduled commercial, 8% air taxi, 4% general aviation, and 4% military. At that time there were 4 aircraft based at this airport: 75% multi-engine and 25% ultralight.
Passenger
The following airlines offer scheduled passenger service at this airport:
Cargo
The following air carrier operates air cargo flights from the airport:
Media appearances
Unalaska Airport is the base for the "Dutch Harbor Approach" mission supplied with Microsoft Flight Simulator X.
Unalaska Airport has also been featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch.