One Of The Oldest Airports In The U.S., Merrill Field In Alaska Is Now 90 Years Old

How many pilots are in Alaska?

There are 7,933 active pilots in Alaska. There are also 9,346 registered aircraft in Alaska. This state is filled with people who love to fly. Many Alaskans like to joke that more people have their pilot’s license than their driver’s license, but that isn’t true. However, Alaska’s stats about pilots are impressive. In a state of more than 600,000 people, there are 11,000 fliers who are registered to fly, even if they aren’t actively flying aircraft. In fact, the National Transportation Safety Board said that Alaskans were 76 times more likely to fly than residents of the lower 48. We love to see our great, big state, and that’s hard to do in any other way besides travel via the power of flight.

Why are there so many pilots in Alaska?

There are so many pilots in Alaska because so much of the state is inaccessible by road. The only way to visit a majority of the small towns and villages is by air. There are 400 public-use Alaska airports! On top of that huge number, there are also 747 recorded landing areas that are private, public, or military. This doesn’t take into account the thousands of locations all across the state where daring pilots choose to land on lakes, glaciers, and gravel bars. They use their keen sense of intuition and knowledge about both the weather conditions and the state of the land in the area and land their aircraft in these wild and awe-inspiring spots. The pilots of the Last Frontier are truly one of a kind!