Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport
Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport
Barter Island LRRS Airport (IATA: BTI, ICAO: PABA, FAA LID: BTI) is a public/military airport located near the city of Kaktovik on Barter Island, in the North Slope Borough, located 312 miles (502 km) east of Point Barrow, Alaska. The airport is owned by the North Slope Borough. It is also known as Barter Island Airport or Kaktovik Airport. The acronym LRRS stands for Long Range Radar Site or Long Range Radar Station.
Location
70.134°N, 143.582°O · 1 m s. n. m. (2 ft)
General data
Runways · 1
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 3 Official publication
Approach
Common traffic (CTAF)
Automated weather
Frequencies from the official publication: FAA NASR, AIRAC 01 OCT 2026, checked on Oct 16, 2026. They change with each amendment: not for navigation without checking the current AIP. See the official publication In MHz.
History
The original runway was built by the United States military in 1947. The U.S. Air Force assumed control of Barter Island in 1951 and extended the runway in 1953 to support the Distant Early Warning Line Radar station at Barter Island (BAR-MAIN). The Barter Island DEW Line station was operated by civilian contract workers. The DEW Line station was inactivated in 1990 and the station personnel were relieved of duty.
The radar station was upgraded with an AN/FPS-117 minimally attended Long Range surveillance radar in the winter of 1990. A prototype AN/FPS-124 short-range radar was also installed. The station was re-designated part of the North Warning System (NWS) as a Long Range Radar Site, A-21, being controlled by the Pacific Air Forces 611th Air Support Group, based at Elmendorf AFB.
In 1998 Pacific Air Forces initiated "Operation Clean Sweep", in which abandoned Cold War stations in Alaska were remediated and the land restored to its previous state. The site remediation of the radar and support station was carried out by the 611th Civil Engineering Squadron at Elmendorf, and remediation work was completed by 2005.
The airport remains open to support the small settlement at Kaktovik and to provide contractor support access to the military radar site.
Airlines operating here · 2
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: Federal Aviation Administration, Alaskan Region · Public domain · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 16, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 16). Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport (BTI). Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/BTI
MLA
“Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport (BTI).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 16 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/BTI. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport (BTI).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/BTI.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport (BTI). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/BTI (Accessed: 24 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_bti,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport (BTI)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-16},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/BTI},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/BTI}},
urldate = {2026-10-24},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-24}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/BTI |title=Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport (BTI) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-16 |access-date=2026-10-24 |language=en}}