The FAA is rewiring Alaska's air routes from beacons to GPS

The FAA is redrawing the invisible highways that planes follow across Alaska's skies, trading the aging ground-based radio beacons that have guided aircraft for decades for GPS and satellite routing. In a state where flying is a lifeline, it's a quiet but sweeping change to how aircraft get around. A batch of the updates takes effect Oct. 29, one of them a better-connected route into King Salmon.

Starting that day, the FAA is extending a GPS route to the King Salmon airport, linking planes flying in and out to the approach and traffic-control services the old route didn't reach. The agency says it wants to knit Alaska's route network more tightly together.

The King Salmon change is one of several hitting the Alaska map that day. The FAA calls the work a large, comprehensive overhaul, and other rules taking effect Oct. 29 scrap or reroute airways elsewhere in the state, including near Kodiak, as the agency moves off ground-based beacons and onto satellite routing.