Alaska's aviation habit.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: AVIATION: SIDEBAR

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Just to illustrate how strong the state's aviation habit is, there are six times as many pilots and 16 times as many aircraft per capita here as in as the test of the country, according to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF).

Alaska's 591,004 square miles, that office says, are served by three flight standards district offices, three automated flight service stations, 14 auxiliary flight service stations, 120 aviation weather camera sites, 163 automated weather monitoring systems, eight Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) control towers and four military towers, two terminal radar approach control facilities and an air route traffic control center.

DOT&PF's Division of Statewide Aviation oversees hundreds of rural airports in addition to Ted Stevens and Fairbanks international airports, which serve 5 million and 1 million passengers a year, respectively, and host 522,000 to 118,000 flight operations. There are 10,803 registered...