Vágar Airport

Vágar Airport
Vága Floghavn
Vágar Lufthavn
IATA: FAE – ICAO: EKVG
Summary
Airport type Civil
Operator Civil Aviation Administration
Location Sørvágur, Faroe Islands
Hub for Atlantic Airways
Elevation AMSL 280 ft / 85 m
Coordinates 62°03′49″N 007°16′38″W / 62.06361°N 7.27722°W / 62.06361; -7.27722 (Vágar Airport)Coordinates: 62°03′49″N 007°16′38″W / 62.06361°N 7.27722°W / 62.06361; -7.27722 (Vágar Airport)
Website floghavn.fo
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
12/30 1,799 5,902 Asphalt
Statistics (2013, 2012[1])
Passengers 236,181 Increase +4.7% from 2,012
Movements 5,265
Source: Faroe Islands AIP at EUROCONTROL[2] and[3]
Map of Faroe Islands. Position of the airport marked with the red aeroplane.

Vágar Airport (Faroese: Vága Floghavn, Danish: Vágar Lufthavn) (IATA: FAE, ICAO: EKVG) is the only airport in the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and is located 1 NM (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) east[2] of Sørvágur. Due to the Faroe Islands' exceptional status, the airport is not fully subject to the rules of the European Union. It is the main operating base for Faroese national airline Atlantic Airways and, for a brief period during 2006, was also the base for the low cost airline FaroeJet.

History

Faroe Airways Douglas DC-3

Early years

The airport was built by British Royal Engineers during World War II on the island of Vágar. The site was chosen mainly because it was hard to see from the surrounding waters and any potential German warship. The first aeroplane landed here in Autumn 1942. (See British occupation of the Faroe Islands in World War II).

After the war the airfield was abandoned and left unused until 1963 when it was reopened as a civilian airport at the initiative of two Sørvágur residents, Hugo Fjørðoy and Lars Larsen. The two worked with the Icelandic airline Icelandair, which began the scheduled flights to Bergen, Copenhagen and Glasgow using a Douglas DC-3 aircraft. In 1964 a separate airline, Faroe Airways, operated flights, first using chartered aircraft but in 1965 they bought a DC-3 from the Swedish airline Linjeflyg.[4] The company ceased operating on 28 September 1967. In 1971, Icelandair was operating Boeing 727-100 jetliners into the airport with weekly nonstop service to Glasgow and Reykjavik.[5] In 1988, Atlantic Airways was flying British Aerospace BAe 146-200 jet service nonstop to Copenhagen.[6] Until 2004 Maersk Air also operated flights into the airport. Maersk Air flew Boeing 737-500 jetliners into the airport with service to Copenhagen.[7][8]

Development since the 2000s

Until 2002 travel from the airport to most locations in the Faroe Islands including the capital Tórshavn required a car ferry, but in 2002 a tolled road tunnel was opened giving direct road access to the neighbouring island of Streymoy, where the Faroese capital Tórshavn is located.

A new terminal opened 17 June 2014 with increased passenger capacity.[9]

The runway was extended from 1,250 metres (4,100 ft) to 1,799 metres (5,902 ft) in 2011, allowing more plane types to be used, and further-away destinations to be introduced.[10] Construction work started in May 2010, and on 3 December 2011, the extended runway was opened and put into use for the first time.[11] Previously, jet aircraft with short airfield performance such as the British Aerospace BAe 146 were preferred for use into the airport (although Maersk Air operated flights with Boeing 737-500 aircraft),[7] and then the most distant destination was Copenhagen, 1300 km. The Airbus A319 of Atlantic Airways is able to utilise the extended runway, and services with this type with Atlantic Airways began in March 2012.[12] Tourist summer flights to Barcelona and Milan were introduced. However, in 2014 they decided to stop the routes to Milan and to London. Instead, they chose to fly to Mallorca and to Aberdeen, later changed to Edinburgh.[13]

The airport is currently managed by the Danish Transport Authority although the ownership of the airport was handed over to the Faroese government in May 2007.[14][15]

A number of domestic Faroese destinations can be reached from Vágar by the Atlantic Airways helicopter service. International destinations include Copenhagen, Aalborg and Billund in Denmark, Reykjavík in Iceland, Aberdeen and London in the United Kingdom, Narsarsuaq in Greenland, Bergen and Stavanger in Norway and Barcelona in Spain.

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
Atlantic Airways Bergen, Billund, Copenhagen, Reykjavík (domestic)
Seasonal: Aalborg, Barcelona, Chania (begins 27 June 2016),[16] Edinburgh, Palma de Mallorca[13]
Charter: Kristiansund, Trondheim
Seasonal Charter: Alicante[17]
Atlantic Airways Helicopter Dímun, Froðba, Hattarvík, Kirkja, Klaksvík, Koltur, Mykines, Skúvoy, Svínoy, Tórshavn

Helicopter services go to remote islands as well as to the biggest towns. Some of these islands have fewer than 10 inhabitants.

Ground transport

There are bus services about 10 times each direction per day between the airport and Tórshavn. They take one hour. The road distance to Tórshavn is 47 kilometres (29 mi). The "Vágatunnilin" tunnel (4.9 km) connects the airport and the Vágar island to the main towns and villages in the Faroe Islands.

Accidents and incidents

See also

References

External links

Media related to Vágar Airport at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, May 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.