
Cold Bay Airport (IATA: CDB, ICAO: PACD, FAA LID: CDB) is a state owned, public use airport located in Cold Bay, a city in the Aleutians East Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. First built as a United States Army Air Forces airfield during World War II, it is one of the main airports serving the Alaska Peninsula. Scheduled passenger service is available and air taxi operators fly in and out of the airport daily. Formerly, the airport operated as Thornbrough Air Force Base. According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, the airport had 9,105 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 8,968 enplanements in 2009, and 9,261 in 2010. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a "non-primary commercial service" airport, meaning it has between 2,500 and 10,000 enplanements per year. Cold Bay's main runway is the fifth-largest in Alaska and was built during World War II. Today, it is used for scheduled cargo flights by Alaska Central Express and is sometimes used as an emergency diversion airport for passenger flights crossing the Pacific Ocean. A myth describes Cold Bay Airport as an alternate landing site for Space Shuttles, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has stated that it was never so designated, and it was not within the entry crossrange capability of Space Shuttles.

55.208°N, 162.725°O · 29 m s. n. m. (96 ft)
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
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.
The airport was constructed during World War II as Fort Randall Army Airfield, eventually becoming an Air Force base during the Cold War.
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: Piergiuliano Chesi · CC BY 3.0 · 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).
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This page was last updated on October 16, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 16). Cold Bay Airport (CDB). Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDB
MLA
“Cold Bay Airport (CDB).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 16 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDB. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Cold Bay Airport (CDB).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDB.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Cold Bay Airport (CDB). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDB (Accessed: 23 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_cdb,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Cold Bay Airport (CDB)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-16},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDB},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDB}},
urldate = {2026-10-23},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-23}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDB |title=Cold Bay Airport (CDB) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-16 |access-date=2026-10-23 |language=en}}