Wake Island Airfield Wake Island Airfield is a military airport located on Wake Island , which is known for the Battle of Wake Island . It is owned by the U . S . Air Force and operated by the Thirteenth Air Force servicing practically only to military purposes within the Wake Island region , yet little military presence is currently encountered . It can be used for emergency landings of transpacific airliners . History . The first intention to build an air base surfaced in 1935 , when Pan American Airways selected Wake Island as an intermediate support base for their routes to the Far East , especially the Philippines . A year prior , jurisdiction over Wake Island was passed to the Navy Department , which cooperated with PAA in updating topographical surveys , due to the potential military value of having a suitable air base near the USSR eastern border . Between 5 and 29 May 1935 , Pan American ' s air base construction vessel , " North Haven " , landed supplies and equipment on Wilkes Island for eventual rehandling to Peale Island which , because of its more suitable soil and geology , had been selected as site for the PAA seaplane base . By the time of North Haven ' s return to Wake , after a month ' s voyage westward to Manila , the project was well under way and , three months later on 9 August 1935 , a Pan American Sikorsky S - 42 flying boat made the first aerial landing at the atoll . From 1935 until 1940 , when two typhoons swept Wake with resultant extensive damage to the now elaborately developed Pan American facilities , development and use of the base were steady but uneventful . A hotel was built , farm animals imported , and hydroponic truck farming commenced . The seaplane base on Peale Island was too limited to support realistic military activity on the atoll , thus supporting plans for development of a full - scale military air base . On 26 December 1940 , implementing the Hepburn Board ' s recommendations , a pioneer party of 80 men and of equipment sailed for Wake Island from Oahu . This advanced detachment commenced establishment of a naval air station on Wake Island . Construction plans included a runway to be used by F4F Wildcat airplanes and commercial airliners of greater size , which couldn ' t land on water . Support craft arrived at Wake on 9 January 1941 , laid - to off Wilkes Island , and next day commenced landing naval supplies and advance base equipment for development of the base . The company contracted to build the base was Morrison - Knudsen Co . ( acquired by Washington Group International ) which , together with seven other companies , built many of the U . S . naval bases throughout the Pacific Ocean . During the construction several military personnel were already deployed . Nearly a year later the Battle of Wake Island began . After pioneering air service into Wake Island in 1935 , Pan American World Airways ( Pan Am ) continued to serve the airfield for a number of years . In 1969 , Wake Island was a scheduled stop on a round trip transpacific flight operated by Pan Am between San Francisco and Saigon in the former country of South Vietnam . This passenger service was operated twice a week with a Boeing 707 intercontinental jetliner . These flights also served Honolulu and Guam nonstop from Wake Island . At the same time , Pan Am was operating daily all cargo flights into Wake Island with a Boeing 707 jet freighter . Depending on the day of the week , this all cargo service was flown into Wake Island on a westbound route that included New York City , Los Angeles , Travis Air Force Base in northern California ( which was a flag stop for military cargo and mail ) , San Francisco and Honolulu . Continuing all cargo service was operated by the Pan Am 707 jet freighter westbound to Guam , Tokyo , Saigon and Hong Kong . Pan Am subsequently discontinued all flights into Wake Island by the early 1970s thus ending many years of passenger and cargo air service . Wake Island was one of the smallest destinations , population - wise , ever to receive scheduled Pan Am jet service . Another airline that operated into Wake Island was Philippine Airlines with Douglas DC - 8 jetliners on a daily westbound service from San Francisco and Honolulu to Manila during the early 1970s . The airfield was a technical stop for fuel for this Philippine Airlines flight as the DC - 8 did not have the range to fly nonstop from Honolulu to Manila . On 31 August 2006 , the super typhoon Ioke ( class 5 ) struck Wake Island . Significant damage was expected to all structures and infrastructure , including the runway . Members of the 36th Contingency Response Group at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam were estimating large costs to repair the airfield facility . On 8 September 2006 , 16 members of the Group arrived at Wake to make the initial assessments and found that the runway and taxiways were still in an acceptable operational condition , with just a requirement to clear debris . Other structures were damaged , and were repaired in 5 days . With the base up and running again , another 53 members arrived by air to support continued reconstruction .