Part of the Cold Bay airport could be left in the dark.

The Federal Aviation Administration is considering decommissioning the approach lights on one of the runways, which could impact air travel to the Aleutian region.

Cold Bay has one of the state’s longest runways, and the airport often serves as a halfway point for PenAir flights traveling to Unalaska. The airline stops at least a couple of flights there daily to refuel or to wait out bad weather. And during busy times of year, they’ll land as many as 15 passenger planes in Cold Bay.

Brian Carricuburu is PenAir’s vice president of operations. He says that without those lights, pilots won’t be able to land on that runway unless they can see for a mile and a quarter. Right now, they can land there with just a mile of visibility. Carricuburu also says that could make it harder for planes to connect to their final destination and affect the way that their fleet handles cargo.

“One of the reasons we’re so protective of the facilities at Cold Bay is because Cold Bay is our nearest alternate airport for Dutch Harbor, which requires considerable amount of fuel on board the aircraft,” says Carricuburu. If the weather was not suitable for an alternate at Cold Bay, then the next alternate for us is King Salmon, which basically requires us to carry full fuel out of Anchorage, which means very little bags.”

In an email, an FAA spokesperson confirmed that the lighting system was being shut down without immediate plans for a replacement. But, he says, the FAA “could find no regular users that would be affected” and that PenAir’s planes are small enough that they won’t see a change in their landing minimums.

The runway lights are scheduled to be turned off when the Cold Bay airport improvement project starts up. The Federal Aviation Administration is accepting public comments on the proposed decommissioning through March 23.