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This is a list of airports in Greenland, grouped by type and sorted by location.
Contents
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 the 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. Arctic Umiaq Line provides passenger and freight services by sea but is limited to the southwest coast and 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 sea plane flights to the settlements. SAS operated the connection from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq, beginning in 1954 as a fuel stop to the United States, and was taken over in 2000 by Air Greenland.
Beginning with Nuuk Airport in 1979 and Ilulissat Airport in 1983, several airports with short runways 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. 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 a very small population reachable by road include Kangerlussuaq Airport, Kulusuk Airport, Narsarsuaq Airport, Nerlerit Inaat Airport and Qaarsut Airport. All 14 civil airports and 47 helipads in Greenland are operated by the state-owned enterprise Greenland Airport Authority.
Aerodromes
The following 14 airports are listed under AD 2 AERODROMES at Naviair.
The following aerodromes also exist. They have no scheduled flights.
Not included are the former United States Army Air Forces bases of Bluie East Two and Marrak Point.
Heliports
The following 47 heliports are listed under AD 4 HELIPORTS at Naviair.
The following four heliports are not listed by Naviair.
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 (2,600–3,000 ft) airstrips which are common in Greenland including 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 metres (3,934 ft) 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 m (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 m (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.