Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport
Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport
Merle K. (Mudhole) Smith Airport (IATA: CDV, ICAO: PACV, FAA LID: CDV) is a state-owned public-use airport located 11 nautical miles (13 mi, 20 km) southeast of the central business district of Cordova, a city in the Chugach Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska which has no road access to the outside world. Airline service is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program. As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 16,640 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 15,372 enplanements in 2009, and 17,856 in 2010. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2015–2019, which categorized it as a primary commercial service (nonhub) airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year) based on 16,061 enplanements in 2012. The airport is named after Merle K. Smith, also known as "Mudhole", a pilot who in 1939 became president of Cordova Airlines, which used the airport as a hub between 1934 and 1968. Cordova Airlines was acquired by Alaska Airlines in 1968.
Location
60.492°N, 145.478°O · 16 m s. n. m. (54 ft)
General data
Runways · 2
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.
What flies here
From our own logbook: 30 aircraft documented between 2006 and 2025.
Types seen here
Airlines with documented aircraft
A count of our own aircraft profiles, year by year, from the public United States flight records: it reflects what we have documented, not the airport’s total traffic.
Airlines operating here · 1
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, Alaska 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). Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport (CDV). Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDV
MLA
“Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport (CDV).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 16 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDV. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport (CDV).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDV.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport (CDV). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDV (Accessed: 17 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_cdv,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport (CDV)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-16},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDV},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDV}},
urldate = {2026-10-17},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CDV |title=Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport (CDV) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-16 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}