Merrill Field, Anchorage, AK

Merrill Field Map

Merrill Field Weather

Today	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Partly Cloudy 64°/48°	Partly Cloudy 64°/46°	Partly Cloudy 68°/48°	Chance of Rain 59°/45°	Partly Cloudy 61°/41°	Partly Cloudy 61°/43°

Parking At Anchorage, AK

About Merrill Field

Merrill Field Commercial Airport can boast about the fact that it was the first real airport in Anchorage when it was established in the year 1930. It was thus named after a pioneer within the aviation field, Russell Merrill, who disappeared mysteriously during a flight 1929. The only evidence of his presence that was ever found was a scrap of fabric which was subsequently identified as cloth from the tail of the plane that Merrill had been flying. Since its establishment, new construction has been added to better the airport, such as the decommission of the Lake Hood Tower (the original air traffic control tower) and the building of its predecessor, the Anchorage Tower in 1976, a construction that stands 165 feet tall and can withstand the power of a 8.5 earthquake. Merrill Field did not let the old tower’s services be forgotten however. After the Lake Hood Tower was dismantled, the tower cab was put on display in the Alaska Transportation Museum where it stands as a proud veteran of aviation history. Merrill Field is located approximately one mile east of Anchorage. A part of Merrill Fields mission is to be a good neighbor within its community, and thus they provide “Fly Friendly” Noise Reduction Guidelines to aviators utilizing the airport. The airport provides many services for the commercial aviation industry such as aircraft rentals and sales, avionics, flight instruction, hangars, pilot supplies and maintenance, to name a few. Merrill Field provides three runways, ranging from 2000 to 4000 feet long for its visiting aircrafts; the landing aircrafts cannot exceed 12,500 pounds due to the fact that Merrill Field is a General Aviation Airport. Merrill Field has proudly ranked as one of the busiest airports in the nation for years, ranking the 72nd busiest airport in 2009 with some 165,000 flight operations and approximately 630,000 gallons of fuel pumped that year. A total of 877 aircraft are based out of Merrill Fields out of a statewide total of 10,891 registered aircraft. One of the few severe weather troubles that Merrill Field does encounter during the years is the legendary, heavy Alaskan snowfall. While delaying and frustration, snow removal is just another aspect of their operations and Merrill Field provides careful guidelines on how to remove and store snow on the runways and around the hangars to minimize the chance of any accidents. In September of 2010, Merrill Fields announced some improvements to the airport such as new paved runways with extended safety areas and new taxiway paving. It is clear that Merrill field is a “little big” airport full of rich history and love of aviation.
FAA Airport Code: MRI
IATA Airport Code: MRI
ICAO Airport Code: PAMR
Merrill Field Website: Link