Reykjavík Airport
Reykjavík Airport Reykjavík Domestic Airport Reykjavíkurflugvöllur | |||||||||||||||||||
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| File:Flugstodir logo.png | |||||||||||||||||||
| File:HotelLoftleidir.JPG A view of Reykjavík Airport from the Perlan hill | |||||||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | Flugstoðir | ||||||||||||||||||
| Serves | Reykjavík | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Reykjavík | ||||||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 45 ft / 14 m | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 64°07′48″N 021°56′26″W / 64.13000°N 21.94056°W | ||||||||||||||||||
| Website | flugstodir.is | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2006) | |||||||||||||||||||
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- This article is about the domestic airport near the city centre; for the airport located 50 km away that serves international flights to and from Reykjavík, see Keflavík International Airport.
Reykjavík Airport (Icelandic: Reykjavíkurflugvöllur, (IATA: RKV, ICAO: BIRK) is the chiefly domestic airport serving Reykjavík, Iceland. The airport lies within a five-minute walk of Reykjavík's city centre. Possessing rather short runways, it normally only serves flights within Iceland and to Greenland and the Faroe Islands, as well as some smaller international charters and private flights. The airport is also sometimes used when weather conditions are not good enough in Keflavík Airport for landings, aircraft like the Boeing 757-200 and smaller divert to Reykjavik Airport. The remaining great majority of international flights arrive at and depart from Keflavík International Airport, 50 km out of town, which can handle most aircraft.
Reykjavík Airport is the main hub of Air Iceland and Eagle Air. Of the three runways, currently only two are active all year round, the smallest runway, 06/24, is usually only used in the winter. Takeoffs from 24 are allowed, landings on 24 and 06 are allowed, but takeoffs from 06 are forbidden because of safety and noise. Reykjavík Airport is owned and operated by the state enterprise Flugstoðir.
History
The first flight from the airport area was September 3, 1919 with the take off of an Avro 504, the first aeroplane in Iceland [3]. Until 1937 there were experiments with airline operations in Vatnsmýri but with the foundation of Iceland's first airline, Flugfélag Íslands in Akureyri in 1938, operations began in the area and in March 1940 scheduled flights started taking off when Flugfélag Íslands moved its hub from Akureyri to Reykjavík.
The current airport was built by the British military during World War II on the south coast of Reykjavík peninsula, then a small town. The military began construction in October 1940 at which time the airport still only had a grass surface. On July 6 1946, the British handed the airport operation over to the Icelandic government and since then it has been operated by the Icelandic Civil Aviation Authority (now named Flugstoðir).
The city has grown all around it in the following decades and it is now essentially located in the middle of the city. This location is considered inconvenient by some, both for safety reasons and because it takes up a lot of valuable space in a central location. This central location is also the reason why many wish to keep the airport where it is as it is a vital link between the national capital and the sparsely populated rest of the country. There is an ongoing debate about the future of the airport with the three options being: keeping the airport as it is, building a new one in the Reykjavík area, or moving the domestic flights to Keflavík International Airport while closing the airport in Reykjavík. The first choice would make it impossible to develop the highly valued land. The second choice would be most expensive, and the third one would hurt the domestic service, reducing access to vital institutions in the capital such as hospitals.
Renovation of the airport started in 2000 and lasted 2 years. This was followed by a referendum in 2001, with 49.3% votes for moving the airport out of the city centre, and 48.1% votes in favor of having it remain in place until 2016, when the current urban plan expires.
After renovation, the width of runways 01/19 and 13/31 is 45 m, and the width of 06/24 is 30m, with visual approach for runways 01 and 31, while runway 19 has ILS CAT I/NBD-DME approach and runway 13 has LLZ-DME/NDB-DME approach. The lights for the runways were also updated with LIH Wedge for all runways.
Terminals and destinations
There are two terminals at Reykjavík Airport. The main terminal which handles both international and domestic traffic for Air Iceland and a smaller terminal serving domestic and international business flights for Eagle Air.
- Air Iceland (Akureyri, Egilstaðir, Grímsey, Ísafjörður, Kulusuk, Narsarsuaq, Þórshöfn, Vágar, Vestmanneyjar, Vopnafjörður)
- Atlantic Airways (Narsarsuaq, Vágar)
- Eagle Air (Bíldudalur, Gjögur, Sauðárkrókur, Höfn)
Atlantic Airways operates some Narsasuaq flights for Air Iceland as well as having a code share agreement to Vágar, Faroe Islands.
When changing between domestic and international flights a 50 km bus transfer is usually needed between Reykjavík Airport and Keflavík International Airport, and at least three hours time between flights is recommended.