Ralph Wien Memorial Airport guide

Ralph Wien Memorial Airport (ICAO PAOT, FAA OTZ) is a state-owned public-use airport on the south side of Kotzebue, a city on Kotzebue Sound in the Northwest Arctic Borough of Alaska. It covers 1,480 acres at an elevation of 14 feet. Governor Ernest Gruening dedicated the field in 1951. It is named for Ralph Wien, who came to Alaska in 1924 and co-founded Wien Air Alaska with his brother Noel.

Kotzebue has no road link to the rest of the state, so the airport is the main year-round route in and out. It has two runways. Runway 9/27 is asphalt, 6,300 feet long and 150 feet wide. Runway 18/36 is gravel, 3,876 feet long and 90 feet wide. Aircraft operations were put at about 60,000 a year in 2014.

Alaska Airlines flies scheduled service to Anchorage, the airport's busiest route, with 33,410 passengers between July 2024 and June 2025. Bering Air links Kotzebue with Nome and with villages across the region, including Ambler, Kiana, Kivalina, Noatak, Noorvik, Point Hope and Selawik. The FAA counted 57,929 enplanements at the airport in 2025.