The Lake Hood Seaplane Base, located in Alaska, is a state-owned seaplane facility. It is located at a distance of three nautical miles, which is approximately 6 kilometers southwest of the central business district of Anchorage.
The Lake Hood area also contains the Lake Hood Strip, which is a gravel runway.
The former gravel strip airport has been closed and converted into an additional runway.
This seaplane base operates around the clock and is accessible to the public. It is the busiest seaplane base in the world with an average of 190 flights per day. It is located on Hood and Spenard Lakes (locally known as Nilkidalii), adjacent to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and only three miles from downtown Anchorage.
The base maintains a working control tower and during the winter months the surface of the lake is kept frozen for use by aircraft with skis.
Interestingly, most airports in the US use the same three-letter code to identify locations within the FAA and IATA. For Lake Hood, the FAA code is LHD, but it does not have an IATA code. The ICAO code for this base is PALH.