For a short time in recent history, it was the busiest airport in the world. It was once a vital stopover between East and West for passengers, but this airport died a slow death and became redundant. However, it bounced back to become one of the most strategic locations for cargo operations. 

Situated at the halfway point between East Asia and North America, Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport (ANC) is now an invaluable jewel in the world of air freight. But how did it rise from the ashes in this way?

Beginnings

Nestled at the top of the Pacific Ocean, the city of Anchorage is the largest in Alaska. Alaska and aviation have a long and distinguished history together. Aviation is often the only way to get to small settlements that are isolated from the state’s road networks, and Anchorage has been at the centre of that network. 

Anchorage is served by three airfields, the primary of which is ANC. The airport itself was opened in 1951 and became the gateway to the state during the advent of commercial aviation. Opened as a joint commercial and Air National Guard base, Anchorage Airport quickly proved its worth as a connecting hub between East and West, with Canadian Pacific Airlines using it as a refueling point for its Far Eastern services. 

However, as aircraft ranges increased and demand for connectivity grew, the demand for flights connecting the Far East and Europe also exploded. However, these routes all had one obstacle in common: the Soviet Union. Soviet airspace was closed to western airlines, awarding them no overfly rights, thereby cutting the quickest route between Europe and Asia. As such, air routes would have to take the fastest route across the Arctic. 

As this was the second quickest route, the aircraft did not have the range to fly from Europe to Asia nonstop. As a result, Anchorage became the ideal stopover point for refueling and replenishment. 

The airport invested heavily in its terminal and apron space, with air traffic rivalling that of Chicago at the time, as dozens of European and Asian wide-body aircraft landed in Anchorage every day. The airport would receive flights from destinations as diverse as London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Taipei, among countless others that a city the size of Anchorage simply wouldn’t usually see. This status gained Anchorage the title of “the crossroads of the world.”

However, by the end of the 1980s, with the introduction of Boeing’s 747-400 and the upcoming 777-200, as well as the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, which opened up new Russian airspace, the writing was on the wall for the airport. Airlines soon began leaving. Most airlines left as soon as they were able to acquire more modern and efficient aircraft; however, some airlines stayed longer than others. 

For example, China Airlines (CI) continued to use Anchorage as a refueling stop until 2011 for its Taipei-New York service, before this stop was moved to Osaka. But what Anchorage lost in passenger traffic, it more than made up for in its demand as a freight hub.

Strategic Location

Few airports are born again in the same way that Anchorage was once they’ve become redundant. But, being at the crossroads of the world, the airport never completely lost its importance.

Although no longer on the route between Europe and Asia, it does sit at the midpoint for flights between East Asia and North America. Today, Anchorage is the second-busiest cargo airport in the world and the third-busiest globally. Being midway between North America and Asia, the airport is under 10 hours away from 95% of the world’s major cities and largest economic hubs. But why stop in the first place?

Unlike passengers, who value a nonstop route and the time savings that come with it, and are willing to pay a premium to achieve it, cargo aviation comes with a different tradeoff. Fly further with less cargo, or fly a shorter distance with more cargo. 

The curse of flying fuel is that an aircraft needs fuel to carry fuel. But an airline has to pay for fuel, whereas customers will pay an airline to carry cargo. Therefore, to maximize the fuel-to-payload ratio, it makes more economical sense to fly a shorter route and refuel than it does to fly nonstop with less cargo on board. And this is Anchorage’s ace up its sleeve. By stopping at ANC, airlines can save thousands of dollars on fuel, while maximizing their cargo payload and using, on average, only an extra hour of travel time.

Anchorage’s true potential became realised in 2004, when the Alaskan Government granted airlines expanded transfer rights, allowing them to transfer cargo between aircraft. This allowed Anchorage to become a transit hub in the same way that Dubai is for passengers. This increased flexibility for Anchorage allowed cargo to be stored on the premises for an aircraft that perhaps could not have landed, while allowing the plane that had brought it there to be filled with different freight and fly elsewhere. 

Additionally, these expanded transfer rights enabled cargo to be transferred between airlines. This greatly liberated the global supply chain, thereby allowing freight to no longer rely on a single courier, and encouraging a significant increase in what was possible and economical logistically through anchorage, and indeed globally. This was a great selling point for Anchorage as it was one of only a small number of airports with the facilities to carry out operations like this.

There are three major transfer rights that Anchorage can cater for: online transfer, interline transfer, and intergauge transfer. Online transfer occurs when cargo is transferred between aircraft of the same airline, thereby remaining within a single supply chain.

Interline transfer occurs when cargo is transferred between carriers, such as between a regular cargo aircraft and a specialized one, or between an Atlas Air (5Y) aircraft and one from FedEx (FX).

Lastly, intergauge transfers involve the transfer of cargo between wide-body and narrow-body aircraft. For example, an MD-11 will land at Anchorage from Osaka and offload its cargo. It will be loaded onto a smaller 737 to transport it to its final destination of Point Barrow, Alaska, the cargo’s ultimate destination.

Anchorage’s Importance

Anchorage’s airport employs roughly 10% of the city’s population, directly or indirectly, primarily driven by the e-commerce and overnight shipping industries. The rise of Amazon and eBay, among online retailers and couriers, as well as the expectation of overnight shipping from customers, has only added to the need for hubs like this.

The airport is not without weakness, though. Anchorage’s primary purpose is as a crew change and fuel stop facility. Presently, cargo airlines vastly prefer operating older aircraft over new ones due to their relatively low procurement, maintenance, and operating costs. 

As a result, most of the current fleet of freighter aircraft that fly trans-Pacific routes fly more efficiently with a stopover. However, as these planes are retired and replaced with newer, more efficient aircraft that can fly routes nonstop economically, Anchorage may eventually find itself redundant once again. 

To combat this, the airport is creating incentives to attract airlines. One such incentive is a refrigerated storage facility. These are rare at airports and are used for the transfer of perishable goods, such as fish, flowers, and pharmaceuticals.

There are also plans for a 500,000-square-foot general cargo transfer facility, which will increase its transfer capacity considerably.

The Anchorage hub has proven its worth time and again, most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021, when it was briefly the busiest airport in the world due to a surge in cargo demand and a decline in passenger traffic.

For all its incentives, though, Anchorage is —and will likely always be —a stopover point for aircraft. This is mainly down to Alaska’s limited exports. The state’s main export is fish, which are highly perishable goods. Furthermore, these goods are rarely transported by air, which again makes it difficult for Anchorage to diversify further.

Incidents, Feats of Flying

Anchorage has played host to numerous incredible feats of flying over the years. One thing aside from air freight that Anchorage can offer is very long runways, which are perfect for emergencies. And when flying over the Pacific, aircraft have very few options, thereby making Anchorage indispensable.

One noteworthy incident of flying occurred on June 8, 1983, with the crash of Reeve Aleutian Airways (RV) Flight 8. Flight 8 was a scheduled passenger service from Cold Bay to Seattle, operated with a Lockheed L-188 Electra. There were 10 passengers and five flight crew onboard the flight that day. 

While passing 25,000 feet, the outboard propeller on the right wing separated from the engine, slicing through the underside of the fuselage and severing many of the flight controls, jamming them in place and depressurizing the cabin. The flight crew regained control by shutting down the outboard engine on the opposite wing and gently manipulating the flight controls using the autopilot, as well as differential thrust on the two remaining engines. 

The crew was able to guide the plane to Anchorage’s runway, against all odds. For their efforts, the flight crew was awarded the Airline Pilots Association Superior Airmanship Award and was invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan. The cause of the incident was never fully ascertained.

Another remarkable feat of flying that Anchorage played host to was that of Northwest Airlines Flight 85, a scheduled service from Detroit to Tokyo on October 9, 2002, operated with a Boeing 747-400. On the flight were 386 passengers and 18 crew members, totaling 404 souls onboard. Cruising at 35,000 feet over the Bering Sea, flight 85 was roughly five hours into its journey when it experienced a “rudder hardover” in the lower rudder. The plane entered a sudden 40-degree left-hand bank. 

Initially believing that they had suffered an engine failure, the primary flight crew entered the cockpit to take over flying from the relief crew, who were at the controls at the time of the hardover. Their initial mayday calls had to be relayed by another Northwest Airlines flight in the communications range of Anchorage, as flight 85 was in a communications dead spot. 

The plane’s controls had to be wrestled to keep it stable. With the pilots taking turns to fly the plane in short bursts due to the sheer exhaustion brought on by the force needed to control the aircraft in the first place, the pilots were able to guide the plane towards anchorage, using a mix of asymmetric thrust, and the constant use of ailerons and rudder to keep the plane flying straight. 

Flight 85 landed on Anchorage’s runway 06R in an almost unprecedented battle between pilot and aircraft, with all 404 souls on board walking away unscathed. The cause of the incident was determined to be a fatigue fracture of the lower rudder power control module manifold, resulting in a hardover of the lower rudder. 

The actions of the pilots of Northwest Airlines Flight 85 are now regarded as textbook examples of Crew Resource Management, the art of working together under pressure —a vital skill in aviation safety.

Conclusion

Anchorage airport is almost unique in the world. One of the few convenient halfway houses for air freight and passengers before it. Its strategic location allows it to have a constant use for a multitude of different reasons. It has risen, fallen, and risen again. It has been a place of convenience in peacetime, and carried the world on its shoulders at times of tension and uncertainty. 

Recognizing its global importance, ANC looks to the future to maintain its position and remain a vital link, connecting global arteries at the crossroads of the world.