Nikolski Air Station


Nikolski Air Station is an unattended airport located in Nikolski on Umnak Island in the Aleutians West Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska. This former military airport is now owned by The Aleut Corporation.
Scheduled commercial airline passenger service is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program. Current service to Nikolski is provided by PenAir using a Grumman Goose G-21A.
As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 165 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 219 enplanements in 2009, and 160 in 2010.

History

The airport was built in 1958 to support Nikolski Air Force Station, a Cold War United States Air Force Distant Early Warning Line radar station on Umnak Island. The station was operated by Detachment 1, 714th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron based at Cold Bay Air Force Station, near Cold Bay, Alaska. The radar station was inactivated in September 1969, ending military use of the airport. The Air Force remediated the site around 2000, removing all abandoned military structures and returning the site to a natural condition.

Facilities

Nikolski Air Station resides at elevation of 77 feet above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 8/26 with a gravel surface measuring 3,512 by 135 feet.

Airlines and destinations