List of airports in Greenland
This is a list of airports in Greenland, grouped by type and sorted by location.
Greenland (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat, Danish: Grønland) is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark).
Since January 2009, Greenland has been divided into four municipalities: Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup, Qeqqata, and Sermersooq. The large Northeast Greenland National Park is not part of any municipality (unincorporated). The Thule Air Base (Pituffik), located as an enclave within Qaasuitsup municipality, is also an unincorporated area and does not belong to any municipality.
Previously, Greenland consisted of three counties (amt): Kitaa/Vestgrønland (West Greenland), Tunu/Østgrønland (East Greenland) and Avannaa/Nordgrønland (North Greenland). Kitaa had 15 municipalities; Tunu had two municipalities and Avannaa had one municipality.
Air travel is extremely important in Greenland, since there are generally no roads between settlements, and distances are long. Boat travel is the main alternative (using Arctic Umiaq Line), but its travel time is long.
History
The first airports in Greenland were built by and for the United States defense. The first and main one was Kangerlussuaq Airport in 1941, followed by Narsarsuaq Airport in 1942 and Kulusuk Airport in 1956. They were initially not used for civilian travel, and they were in general not located near the local major settlement making them less useful for civilian travel. In the early 1960s, Greenlandair was founded, starting flights between the air bases, and helicopter and water plane flights to the settlements. SAS operated the connection from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq (beginning 1954 as a fuel stop to the United States), taken over by Air Greenland after year 2000.
Beginning with Nuuk Airport in 1979 and Ilulissat Airport in 1983, several short runway airports were built.
Airports
Many locations in Greenland have Danish names in addition to their Greenlandic names. The Danish name, where applicable, is shown in italics. ICAO location identifiers link to pages from AIP Greenland. Airport or heliport names shown in bold indicate the facility has scheduled passenger service on a commercial airline.
Several of the airports do not have road connection with the local major settlement, so a helicopter transfer is often needed by most passengers to some airports. Airports with very small population reachable by road include Kangerlussuaq Airport, Kulusuk Airport, Narsarsuaq Airport, Nerlerit Inaat Airport and Qaarsut Airport. All 14 civil airports and 46 helipads in Greenland are operated by the state-owned enterprise Greenland Airport Authority.
Future
At a late 2011 Air Greenland meeting, plans to move the main Greenland intercontinental air hub away from Kangerlussuaq were agreed upon. From 2011 is has not been possible to buy new aircraft (except for very small ones) which can use the 800-900 m airstrips which are common in Greenland including the Nuuk airport. So something needs to be done before the fleet of Bombardier Dash 8 Q200 is retired in future.
According to the 2011 plan three 1,199 meter airstrips will be built: consisting of a new airport at Qaqortoq, and expansions at Nuuk, and Ilulissat. Probably later new airports at Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit will be built. These planned airstrips will be too short to host intercontinental flights, so an airstrip of at least 1,799 metres (5,902 ft) must be created before Kangerlussuaq can be closed. Even such a runway would only allow smaller planes than current ones serving the Denmark route, requiring more flights. The main candidates for a new intercontinental airport are presently Ilulissat and Nuuk. Only a longer 2,800 metres (9,200 ft) runway would allow continued use of the planes currently serving the Denmark route, which would need a new location on islands outside Nuuk. Suggested alternatives are to have the intercontinental hub at Illulisat or Keflavik.
Alongside Kangerlussuaq, if airports at Qaqortoq, Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit are built, the airports at Narsarsuaq, Kulusuk and Nerlerit Inaat will also be closed.[1]
- List of airlines of Greenland
- Air Greenland destinations
- Transport in Greenland
- Statens Luftfartsvæsen (Civil Aviation Administration for Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands)
- List of airports by ICAO code: B#BG - Greenland
- Wikipedia: Airline destination lists: North America#Greenland (Denmark)
References
- "AIP Greenland". Civil Aviation Administration - Denmark (Statens Luftfartsvæsen).
- "Departures and Arrivals". Air Greenland.
- "ICAO Location Indicators by State" (PDF). International Civil Aviation Organization. 17 September 2010.
- "IATA Airline and Airport Code Search". International Air Transport Association.
- "UN Location Codes: Greenland". UN/LOCODE 2012-1. UNECE. 14 September 2012. – includes IATA codes
- "Airports in Greenland". Great Circle Mapper. – IATA and ICAO codes
- "Airports in Greenland". World Aero Data. – ICAO codes
- ↑ "Kangerlussuaq to be closed". Sermitsiaq, AG. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
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