Cheap Flights to Savoonga Airport

Discover Savoonga

Savoonga Airport is a state-owned, public-use airport that serves the city of Savoonga in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located two nautical miles (four kilometres) south of the central business district of the city, which is in the state’s Nome Census Area. Savoonga is located on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. The airport has an area of 834 acres (338 hectares) and is elevated at 53 feet (16 metres) above mean sea level. The airport has one gravel runway designated 5/23 with a runway measuring 4,400 × 100 feet (1,341 × 30 metres) and is of gravel surface.

What to see & do

The city of Savoonga, also known as the “Walrus Capital of the World”, is located in Nome Census Area, Alaska, one of the two on St Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. Incorporated in 1969, it became the joint owner with Gambell of the entire island in 1971. It covers a total area of 6.1 square miles (16 square kilometres), all of it land. As per the 2010 census, Savoonga had a population of 671. Siberian Yupik is the language most people on St. Lawrence Island speak, while the some of the native languages are lost. Savoonga’s local economy is comprised largely of subsistence hunting for walrus, seals, fish, and bowhead whales. During the 1930s, its proximity to a camp and its good hunting and trapping opportunities attracted more residents back when it used to be a village. Savoonga hosts the Walrus Festival during spring.

St. Lawrence Island is situated west of the mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea, near the south of the Bering Strait. Although part of Alaska, the island is closer to Siberia than to the Alaskan mainland. St. Lawrence Island is known as one of the last exposed portions of the land bridge which used to join Asia with North America in the Pleistocene period. When visiting the island, one will see an abundance of seabirds and marine mammals. During nesting season, approximately 2.7 million seabirds flock the island. During early June, many puffins, auklets, kittiwakes, eiders, loons, and many other seabirds pass by St. Lawrence Island on their way to migration to their Arctic breeding grounds or local nesters. The Siberian Yupik inhabits the island, and they are known for their carving skills, mostly with materials from marine mammals such as walrus ivory and whale bone. Other interesting items that can be found on St. Lawrence Island also include fossilised ivory and other artefacts. Birding tours to Gambell, Savoonga’s neighbour community on the island, are also available from Anchorage.

How to get around within Savoonga

There’s no information regarding Savoonga’s methods of transportation, or even within St. Lawrence Island.

How to get there

Savoonga Airport operates domestic flights and is served by two airlines, Bering Air and Ravn Alaska, both flying to and from Gambell and Nome, both within the Nome Census Area. These flights, however, depend on the weather.