Cold Bay Airport

Cold Bay Airport
CDBPACD

Cold Bay Airport

Cold Bay, United States · North America
North America America/Anchorage
9direct destinations
2airlines
2runways
3,103 mLongest runway

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.

Location

Mapa

55.208°N, 162.725°O · 29 m s. n. m. (96 ft)

General data

CountryUnited States
CityCold Bay
Coordinates55.208°N, 162.725°O
Elevation29 m s. n. m. (96 ft)
Time zoneAmerica/Anchorage
Longest runway3,103 m
OperatorDepartamento de Transportación y Servicios Públicos de Alaska
Direct destinations9

Runways · 2

15/33
Length3,103 m10,180 ft
Width46 m151 ft
SurfaceAsphalt
Lighted✓
08/26
Length1,494 m4,902 ft
Width46 m151 ft
SurfaceAsphalt
Lighted✓

Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.

Radio frequencies · 3 Official publication

Approach

118.500ARTCC

Common traffic (CTAF)

123.600

Automated weather

135.750ASOS
Look for a live feed on LiveATC External site; not every airport has a feed.

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 airport was constructed during World War II as Fort Randall Army Airfield, eventually becoming an Air Force base during the Cold War.

Airlines operating here · 2

Other airlines with direct routes

Grant Aviation Aleutian Airways

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).

Cite

To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.

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}}