Nanwalek Airport guide

Nanwalek Airport (ICAO PAAW, FAA KEB) is a state-owned, public-use gravel airstrip serving Nanwalek, a small Alaska Native community on the lower Kenai Peninsula. The village was once called English Bay, and the airport carried that name before it was renamed. The field sits at 27 feet above sea level on about 14 acres, with no control tower.

The single runway, 1/19, is 1,850 feet long and 50 feet wide. Part of the Runway 19 end is closed, which leaves roughly 850 usable feet at that end. The strip is one of the shortest used by scheduled commuter service in the United States. There is no staffed passenger terminal.

Nanwalek has no road connection to the rest of the state, so the airstrip is the main link for passengers, mail and freight. Smokey Bay Air flies scheduled small-aircraft service from Homer, with a stop at neighbouring Port Graham on the route. Nanwalek was the second-busiest domestic destination from Homer Airport in the year to August 2022, with 1,910 passengers. The last published traffic count, for 2002, recorded 3,100 aircraft operations, almost all air taxi.