Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport

Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport (PACV) is a medium airport in Cordova, AK. Pilots and dispatchers reference it by ICAO code PACV or IATA code CDV. It sits in North America.

Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport is a regional commercial airport that doubles as a busy private-aviation base. Operators benefit from full instrument approaches and an FBO infrastructure scaled for regular jet traffic, often without the congestion of the nearest major hub.

The longest runway measures 7,500 ft (2,286 m), a heavy-class field. Representative aircraft that operate comfortably here include the Gulfstream G550, Falcon 7X, and Bombardier Global 5500. In practice this most heavy and super-midsize jets operate here without restriction.

Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport sits near sea level at 54 ft.

Local operations run on America/Anchorage. Scheduled airline service is light enough that it rarely interferes with charter movements, though planners should still expect to coordinate with the handling agent for international turnarounds.

SkyAccess inventory for PACV updates continuously as operators publish new empty legs and one-way repositioning trips. Pricing on each leg is available with a free account, and an inventory alert will email you the moment a leg appears on the route you care about.

Regional fields like PACV are a meaningful share of US private aviation — closer to the trip's actual origin or destination than the nearest major hub, with shorter ramp-to-cabin times that are the main reason owners and brokers prefer them.

Merle K. (Mudhole) Smith Airport is a state-owned public-use airport located 11 nautical miles southeast of the central business district of Cordova, a city in the Chugach Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska which has no road access to the outside world. Airline service is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.