# Ambler Airport (ABL)

> Ambler, US · IATA: ABL · ICAO: PAFM · Medium Airport · Cargo Hub

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `ABL` |
| ICAO | `PAFM` |
| City | Ambler |
| Country | US |
| Type | Medium Airport |
| Elevation | 102 m |
| Cargo | ✅ |
| GPS | 67.10553, -157.85534 |

## Description

When the river freezes, almost everything Ambler consumes arrives by air. The village of barely 300 people on the upper Kobuk River in north-west Alaska depends on Ambler Airport (IATA: ABL, ICAO: PAFM), a gravel strip of roughly 900 metres with no road link to the outside world. Bering Air connects it to the regional hub at Kotzebue; groceries, mail and spare parts come in under the Bypass Mail programme, while heavy freight travels upriver by barge during the short summer. There is no cargo terminal, but scheduled small-aircraft freight capacity is a fixed part of village supply. The contested Ambler Access Road — about 340 kilometres (211 miles) of industrial road to a mining district holding copper, cobalt and gallium — won federal approval in October 2025, and the U.S. government took a roughly ten percent stake in Trilogy Metals through a USD 35.6 million investment; in May 2026 the Interior Department moved to transfer federal land to Alaska for the route. Construction has not started: ten conservation and Alaska Native organisations filed suit in January 2026 against the reinstated permits. Until that is resolved, aircraft and barge remain the only options.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/ambler-airport-abl](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/ambler-airport-abl)*

*Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/ambler-airport-abl](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/ambler-airport-abl)*

*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/airports/ambler-airport-abl/llm-summary*