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Fairbanks International Airport Police and Fire Department entry pay
What this agency pays a new officer to start, and how that compares with the rest of the country.
Entry pay onlyEvery salary here is what an officer is paid on day one, out of the academy — base pay on a 40-hour week, with no overtime, shift differential, specialty or education pay counted. Nobody stays on it.
Fairbanks International Airport Police and Fire Department starts at $87,381 a year — about $42.01 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $20,696 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $27,177 above the median for special jurisdiction agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Alaska run about 2% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $85,367 somewhere at average prices — $2,014 less than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 119, where goods are 106. Based on state-wide price levels, because this agency is not tied to a single metro area, from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024. The salary above is what the employer publishes; this line is our arithmetic on it, and nothing on this site is ranked on it.
What Fairbanks International Airport says about itself
Our Mission: Providing professional public safety services to the Fairbanks International Airport community.
What Fairbanks International Airport does
The Fairbanks International Airport Police and Fire Department is a State of Alaska agency, part of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, policing Fairbanks International Airport in interior Alaska. It consists of 20 sworn officers, four lieutenants, a deputy chief and a chief, with an administrative assistant and eight emergency services dispatchers in the Airport Communications Center. Its officers are dual certified as both police officers and firefighters, which the department describes as a distinction unique among public safety forces in Alaska, and they provide law enforcement, aircraft rescue and structural firefighting, hazardous materials response, water and confined space rescue and first responder medical care for the whole airport community, which has a daytime population of more than 2,500 and close to a million airline passengers a year. Officers enforce municipal, state and federal law with particular emphasis on Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration regulations, support airfield operations including runway self-inspection and wildlife hazing, and the department provides mutual aid to ten other area fire departments. Officers work shift work throughout their careers; Fairbanks is also the primary diversionary airport for Ted Stevens Anchorage International.
Fairbanks International Airport’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Article 11.09 of the 2023-2026 agreement between the State of Alaska and the Public Safety Employees Association covering Airport Police and Fire Officers sets the roster in the employer's own words: members select by classification seniority between two day shifts and two evening shifts - 0600 to 1800 or 1800 to 0600 hours, with either Friday, Saturday and Sunday or Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as regular days off. Airport Police and Fire Officers normally work a twelve-hour shift with alternating three and four days off, and one workday is scheduled as an eight-hour shift, for a total of eighty hours in each fourteen-day period, with every other Thursday as a regular day off. The eight-hour day that falls once every two weeks is chosen by officers on seniority. Shift changes occur no more often than every four months and no less often than every twelve, with bidding posted at least a month beforehand.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
October 2026
Eighty hours in fourteen days, six twelves and one eight, and every other Thursday off - that is a fortnightly pattern, not a weekly one, and it is exactly what a paper calendar gets wrong. Set the cycle in BlueShifts once and the alternating three-and-four days off, the short day you picked on seniority and the every-other-Thursday all land where they should for the rest of the year. When the four-month shift bid moves you from 0600 to 1800, change the tour type and the swing and grave differentials follow the hours that earned them.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 September 2026. Fairbanks International Airport Police & Fire, Recruitment page — Airport Police and Fire Officer I position description, Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities — open the source document
Read 10 September 2026 from the department's own recruitment page, which states in its own words: Airport Police and Fire Officer I, Fairbanks International Airport, starting salary $87,380.80/year ($42.01/hour) effective July 1st 2025. That is the published annual figure and no arithmetic has been applied to it. THE ENTRY TEST IS SETTLED ON THE PAGE ITSELF: all requirements of the Alaska Police Standards Council must be met for certification and the department pays for all training required, so no prior certification is needed; recruits are enrolled at the Department of Public Safety academy in Sitka for a sixteen-week residential course and must also pass State Firefighter I, Firefighter II, Aircraft Rescue Firefighting, Hazardous Materials Operations and Emergency Trauma Technician certification. Applicants must be 21 and hold a valid Alaska driver's license. MEASURE NOTE, RECORDED RATHER THAN RESOLVED: the class sits in the State's AP bargaining unit (PSEA Airport Police and Fire Officers) and Fairbanks is paid on salary schedule AP-103, which is the base schedule plus the three per cent Fairbanks geographic differential set out in Article 14.04 of the 2023-2026 agreement. The department's $42.01 does not fall on step A of the range in the schedule effective 1 July 2025, and the page does not say which step it advertises, so the schedule has NOT been used to restate or update the figure. Excluded from the figure: swing shift differential of 3.75 per cent for hours between 1600 and 0000, grave shift differential of 7.5 per cent between 0000 and 0800, education incentive pay for a Bachelor's degree or an Intermediate or Advanced Police Certificate, FTO, Watch Commander, instructor, SERT, EOD and canine premiums.
Entry-level base salary only. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift
differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded, so most officers earn more
than this.
How this level compares
Where Fairbanks International Airport sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.
| Level | Lowest | Median | Highest | Agencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | $33,280 | $68,140 | $163,619 | 1549 |
| County | $35,000 | $63,565 | $132,263 | 516 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,166 | $110,916 | 145 |
| Federal | $70,477 | $73,502 | $86,530 | 5 |
| Territory | $16,640 | $28,236 | $43,354 | 9 |
Federal agencies pay the most to start
The middle federal agency starts at $73,502 — about $5,400 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,900 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,300 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Fairbanks International Airport starts at $87,381, so $27,177 above the special jurisdiction middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Fairbanks International Airport Police and Fire Department officer make?
Fairbanks International Airport Police and Fire Department starts a new officer on $87,381 a year, about $42.01 an hour on a 2,080-hour year. That is base salary before overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials and locality pay, so most serving officers earn more. The figure comes from Fairbanks International Airport Police & Fire, Recruitment page — Airport Police and Fire Officer I position description, Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Alaska?
It ranks #3 of 15 agencies we have verified in Alaska — 12 pay less, 2 pay more in the state — and #315 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $20,696 above, and against other special jurisdiction agencies $27,177 above.
What shifts do Fairbanks International Airport Police and Fire Department officers work?
Article 11.09 of the 2023-2026 agreement between the State of Alaska and the Public Safety Employees Association covering Airport Police and Fire Officers sets the roster in the employer's own words: members select by classification seniority between two day shifts and two evening shifts - 0600 to 1800 or 1800 to 0600 hours, with either Friday, Saturday and Sunday or Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as regular days off. Airport Police and Fire Officers normally work a twelve-hour shift with alternating three and four days off, and one workday is scheduled as an eight-hour shift, for a total of eighty hours in each fourteen-day period, with every other Thursday as a regular day off. The eight-hour day that falls once every two weeks is chosen by officers on seniority. Shift changes occur no more often than every four months and no less often than every twelve, with bidding posted at least a month beforehand. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Fairbanks International Airport Police and Fire Department side by side with any other agency on the site — the two salaries, what each is worth once local prices are counted, and which comes out ahead.
The agencies either side of it
Other agencies in AK
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Fairbanks | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska State Troopers | State | 363 | $97,365 | +$9,984 | #158 |
| 2 | North Slope Borough Police Department | County | 47 | $94,120 | +$6,739 | #194 |
| 4 | Anchorage Police Department | Municipal | 369 | $85,405 | −$1,976 | #347 |
| 5 | Juneau Police Department | Municipal | 41 | $84,490 | −$2,891 | #361 |
| 6 | Wasilla Police Department | Municipal | 29 | $80,558 | −$6,822 | #474 |
| 7 | Ketchikan Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $79,726 | −$7,654 | #502 |
| 8 | Kenai Police Department | Municipal | 17 | $79,414 | −$7,966 | #512 |
| 9 | Fairbanks Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $79,040 | −$8,341 | #521 |
| 10 | Nome Police Department | Municipal | 11 | $77,958 | −$9,422 | #557 |
| 11 | Petersburg Borough Police Department | Municipal | — | $71,406 | −$15,974 | #850 |
| 12 | Bristol Bay Borough Police Department | County | 4 | $68,390 | −$18,991 | #1,027 |
| 13 | Haines Borough Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,768 | −$20,613 | #1,136 |
Base pay is only part of the year
Whatever the figure above, the rotation is what decides your year — which weekends you lose, when the changeovers land, what you can plan around. Save yours once and BlueShifts shows it a year ahead, with the off-duty jobs you take and what each one paid.
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