Kulusuk Airport
| Kulusuk Airport Mittarfik Kulusuk | |||||||||||
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Kulusuk Airport, terminal | |||||||||||
| IATA: KUS – ICAO: BGKK | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Operator | Mittarfeqarfiit | ||||||||||
| Serves | Kulusuk, Greenland | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 117 ft / 36 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 65°34′25″N 037°07′25″W / 65.57361°N 37.12361°WCoordinates: 65°34′25″N 037°07′25″W / 65.57361°N 37.12361°W | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  BGKK Location in Greenland | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2012) | |||||||||||
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Kulusuk Airport (Greenlandic: Mittarfik Kulusuk) (IATA: KUS, ICAO: BGKK) is an airport in Kulusuk, a settlement on an island of the same name off the shore of the North Atlantic in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland.
Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air Greenland | Nuuk, Tasiilaq, Nerlerit Inaat Airport |
| Air Iceland | Reykjavík-Domestic |
Bottlenecks
Unlike the heliport in Tasiilaq on the nearby Ammassalik Island, the airport in Kulusuk can serve STOL aircraft, thus functioning as a mini-hub for Tasiilaq.[2]
Given the increasing number of passengers travelling through the airport due to connections provided by Air Iceland, both domestic to Nerlerit Inaat Airport and international to Iceland, the number of fixed-schedule helicopter flights to Tasiilaq[3] is not sufficient to cover demand, due to a single Bell 212 helicopter of Air Greenland stationed at the airport.[4]
Before Air Greenland took over Air Alpha, flights had been operated on-demand by two helicopters. The problem is acknowledged by Air Greenland, however the final decision regarding expansion belongs to the Government of Greenland.[4]
Facilities
Kulusuk Airport has in corporation with Air Iceland installed de-icing facilities since the winter 2014-2015.[5] The terminal building hosts a small cafeteria, and a duty-free stand in the departures/arrivals hall. Accessible restrooms are available.
Transfers
Access to the departures hall is limited due to the need to screen purchases at the duty-free. Passengers are only allowed to pass through the hall immediately before boarding, resulting in a lack of separation between arriving and departing passengers in the waiting check-in hall. Most arrivals and departures are synchronized in time to facilitate transfers between Air Iceland passengers and Air Greenland paseengers bound for Nuuk and Tasiilaq (and to several settlements in the area from there).
The waiting hall is not sufficient to accommodate all passengers, resulting in a pre-boarding chaos.[6] Most flights are delayed due to the policy of deferring departures until all transferring passengers have been distributed to their respective flights, one flight at a time.
History
The airstrip was built by the US defense in 1956, in order to support a Distant Early Warning Line station. The defense station was closed in 1991. Like some other airports in Greenland it was not built at a location suitable for civilian travel, i.e. not near the local major settlement.
Future
The are political discussions on building a new airport at Tasiilaq, the major settlement in the region, and to close the Kulusuk Airport.[7]
Accidents and incidents
- On 2 July 1972, Douglas C-47B F-WSGU of Rousseau Aviation was damaged beyond economic repair in an accident.[8]
- On 20 April 1985, a problem was encountered with the additional fuel tanks that an Fokker F27 Friendship (registered YN-BZF) had been fitted with for the delivery flight to Aeronica from Europe to Managua, Nicaragua. Augusto C. Sandino International Airport. The pilots decided to return to Kulusuk Airport in Greenland, the place of their most recent fuel stop, but failed to do so. The aircraft crashed on a snow-covered strip, killing two of the five occupants.[9]
Photographs
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Terminal
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Bell and Lynx helicopters
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Approaching Kulusuk Airport from the east
References
- ↑ BGKK – Kulusuk Airport (PDF). Greenlandic Aeronautical Information Publication from Statens Luftfartsvæsen (CAA-DK).
- ↑ Air Greenland destination overview, with a photograph of the runway
- ↑ "Booking system". Air Greenland. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
- 1 2 "Utilfredse Air Greenland-kunder". Sermitsiaq (in Danish). 12 April 2010. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ↑ "Defective equipment costs Air Greenland millions". Sermitsiaq. 18 November 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ↑ O'Carroll, Etain (2005). Greenland and the Arctic. Lonely Planet. p. 206. ISBN 1-74059-095-3.
- ↑ Kangerlussuaq lukkes (in Danish)
- ↑ "F-WGSU Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
- ↑ http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19850420-1
