Unalaska Airport


Tom Madsen Airport is a state-owned public-use airport in City of Unalaska, 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, southwest of Anchorage and from Seattle.
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 was provided by PenAir, a code share partner of Alaska Airlines until October 2019, and prior to that 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 initially operated Saab 340 and then Saab 2000 regional turboprop aircraft into the airport. PenAir went into bankruptcy in 2019 and its assets, including aircraft were acquired by Ravn Alaska, and one of the Saab 2000 formerly operated by PenAir was involved in a fatal accident on October 17, 2019, which resulted in the end of Alaska Airlines code shared service. Ravn Alaska is now serving the airport using Dash-8 aircraft, but without involvement of Alaska Airlines. 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 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.
for a 1972 flight on Reeve Aleutian Airways

Facilities and aircraft

Unalaska Airport has one runway designated 13/31 with an asphalt surface measuring 4,500 by 100 feet. There is a microwave landing system 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 four aircraft based at this airport: 75% multi-engine and 25% ultralight.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines offer scheduled passenger service at this airport:

Cargo

The following air carrier operates air cargo flights from the airport:

Incidents and accidents

Unalaska Airport is the base for the "Dutch Harbor Approach" mission supplied with Microsoft Flight Simulator X.
The airport has been featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch.