Bethel Airport Guide

Bethel Airport lies about 3 miles southwest of Bethel's central business district, in western Alaska. It is the main airport for Bethel and for the villages that Grant Aviation, Ryan Air and Yute Commuter Service connect to it.

The field began as Bethel Air Base, built from 1941 and activated on 4 July 1942. It passed to Alaskan Air Command in 1945 as a joint-use airport, and the State of Alaska took full jurisdiction in 1958. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Central Region, owns it today.

Three runways serve the field. Runway 1L/19R is 6,400 feet by 150 feet of grooved asphalt in good condition. Runway 1R/19L is 4,000 feet by 75 feet of asphalt, and runway 12/30 is 1,858 feet by 75 feet, mostly gravel with the first 495 feet of the runway 30 end paved. Bethel Tower and Ground operate from 0700 to 2200 local time from April to October, and from 0700 to 2000 from November to March.

The airport logged about 122,000 aircraft operations in the 12 months to March 2018, around 334 a day, and Wikipedia reports about 290,000 passengers for 2018. Alaska Airlines flies to Anchorage. Grant Aviation, Ryan Air and Yute Commuter Service fly to villages across western Alaska. Cargo carriers including Alaska Central Express, Everts Air Cargo, Lynden Air Cargo and Northern Air Cargo also fly freight to Anchorage.