Alaskan Air Service Hub Cities

Alaskan Air Service operates out of four "hub" cities throughout southern Alaska. Each hub maintains its own fleet of aircraft and employs a qualified and friendly staff of pilots, mechanics, dispatch personnel and contracting agents.

Anchorage

Wedged between the two arms of Cook Inlet and the imposing Chugach Mountains, ANCHORAGE is home to over forty percent of Alaska's population, and serves as the transportation center for the whole state. This sprawling city on the edge of one of the world's great wildernesses often gets a bad press from those who live elsewhere in Alaska – derided as being "just half an hour from Alaska" – but it has its attractions, and with its beautiful setting can make a pleasant one- or two-day stopover.

By the time Captain James Cook came up what is now Cook Inlet in 1778, in search of a Northwest Passage to the Atlantic, Russian fur trappers had already started to settle the area, trading copper and iron for fish and furs with the Native Americans. Though Cook was sure that the inlet was not the Passage, he sent boats out in a southeasterly direction to investigate. When they were forced to turn back by the severe tides, Cook named this gloriously scenic stretch Turnagain Arm.

Anchorage itself began life in 1915 as a tent city for construction workers on the Alaska Railroad. The opening of the airport established Anchorage – equidistant between New York and Tokyo – as the "Crossroads of the World," and statehood in 1959 brought in yet more optimistic adventurers. Today, Anchorage is a fully modern city boasting enough comforts and attraactions to provide something for the entire family. It is also an ideal starting point to begin your Alaskan adventure.

The Anchorage hub of Alaskan Air Services operates the following aircraft:

• 3 Cessna Caravans
• 3 Shorts 330 Sherpas
• 3 Dehavilland Beaver float planes
• 1 Dehavilland Twin Otter
• 1 HU-16 Albatross
• 1 C-123 Turbo Provider

Fairbanks

Fairbanks is located 358 miles north of Anchorage at the end of the Alaska Highway from Canada and definitely at the end of the road for most tourists. Its central location makes a great base for exploring a hinterland of gold mines and hot springs, and a staging point for both the tiny villages scattered around the surrounding wilderness, and for journeys along the Dalton Highway (aka the "Haul Road") to the Arctic Ocean oil community of Prudhoe Bay.

Alaska's second most populous town was founded accidentally, in 1901, when a steamship carrying E.T. Barnette, a merchant with all his wares on board, ran aground in the shallows of the Chena River. Unable to transport the supplies he was carrying, Barnette set up shop in the wilderness and catered to the few trappers and prospectors trying their luck in the area. The following year, with the beginnings of the Gold Rush, a tent city sprang up on the site, and Barnette made a mint. In 1908, at the height of the gold stampede, Fairbanks had a population of 18,500, but by 1920 the population had dwindled to only 1100. To thwart possible Japanese attacks during World War II, several huge military bases were built and the population rebounded, getting a further boost in the mid-1970s when it became the transportation center for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline project: construction and other oil-related activities brought a rush of workers seeking wages of up to $1500 per week and the popu lation reached an all-time high.

The spectacular aurora borealis is a major winter attraction, as is the Ice Festival in mid-March, with its ice sculpting competition and open sled dog race on the frozen downtown streets. Summer visitors should try to catch the three-day World Eskimo-Indian Olympics in mid-July when contestants from around the state compete in dance, art and sports competitions.

Fairbanks suffers remarkable extremes of climate, with winter temperatures dropping to -70°F and summer highs topping 90°F. Proximity to the Arctic Circle means over 21 hours of sunlight in midsummer, when midnight baseball games take place under natural light, and 2am bar evacuees are confronted by bright sunshine.

The Fairbanks hub of Alaskan Air Services operates the following aircraft:

• 2 Cessna Caravans
• 1 Shorts 330 Sherpa
• 2 Dehavilland Beaver float planes
• 1 Dehavilland Twin Otter

Bethel

Bethel Alaska is a city of about 5,100 some 90 miles from the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, and 399 air miles west of Anchorage. Bethel is the hub for 56 villages, providing the a base for YKHC (Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp.) who operates the regional hospital and the clinics in the villages.Bethel has a 6400 x 150 foot paved runway and a 1850 x 75 foot gravel runway with both passenger and cargo, prop and jet service. From here, the small schedule and charter air taxis haul people, supplies and mail to the villages', short gravel and river strips year round.

In summer the river is the main form of transportation, as most villagers commercial fish to support their subsistence lifestyle and use the boats for transport. The Port of Bethel is the busiest place in town in summer, offloading the winters bulkiest supplies, construction materials, heating oil, gasoline and avgas as well as rock, gravel and sometimes even prefab houses and trailers. In winter, the Kuskokwim River not only becomes a legal "state Highway" on which the ice road is plowed with state funding, and an "off road" route for snow machine travel to and from the villages, but becomes the route for a large part of the highest paying middle distance sled dog race in the country, the "Kuskokwim 300" sled dog race. Hunting, fishing, trapping, and just about any other winter outdoor sport and the Delta's most popular indoor winter sport, basketball, the Mink Festival, and the Camai Dance Festival keep people traveling all winter. All these villages are isolated from each other, as there are no roads between villages in "the bush".

In "Bush Alaska", it is a necessity for all peoples to work together in order to survive. Bethel is also fast becoming a jumping off place for summer sport fishing, camping, bird watching, and floating down one of the many wild rivers that drain into the Kuskokwim.

The Bethel hub of Alaskan Air Services operates the following aircraft:

• 2 Cessna Caravans
• 2 Shorts 330 Sherpas
• 1 Dehavilland Beaver float plane
• 1 Dehavilland Twin Otter

Dillingham

Dillingham is located in Southwestern Alaska at the extreme northern end of Nushagak Bay, at the confluence of the Wood and Nushagak Rivers. It lies 360 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, which is a one hour, 15 minute trip by air. There are no roads you can drive to get to Dillingham. Dillingham is considered a bush Alaska town, with approximately 2,500 year round residents. There are about 15 miles of drivable roads once you get there. The population is approximately 66% Native Alaskan. The slogan for this area is "Nature's Front Porch." Visitors to Dillingham can expect to enjoy one or more of it's renowned outdoor activities including, kyaking, fishing, hiking, hunting and sightseeing in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge.

The Dillingham hub of Alaskan Air Services operates the following aircraft:

• 2 Cessna Caravans
• 3 Dehavilland Beaver float planes