Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen
Encyclopedia
Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen (Norwegian: Kirkenes lufthavn, Høybuktmoen) is the airport serving Kirkenes
Kirkenes
is a town in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in the far northeast of Norway...

 in eastern Finnmark
Finnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. Høybuktmoen is located west of Kirkenes, at the base of a peninsula jutting into Varangerfjord
Varangerfjord
The Varangerfjord in the county of Finnmark, is the easternmost fjord in Norway. It is approximately long. In a strict sense, it is a false fjord, as it does not have the hallmarks of a fjord carved by glaciers....

. Like most other airports in Norway, the airport is operated by Avinor
Avinor
Avinor AS is a state owned limited company in that operates most of the civil airports in Norway. The Norwegian state, via the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications controls 100 percent of the share capital. Avinor was created on 1 January 2003, by the privatization of the...

.

Høybuktmoen Airport is a primary airport, with a 2,115 meters long and 45 meters wide runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

 numbered 06/24, paved with asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

, and capable of serving jet airplanes. Høybuktmoen Airport has direct flights to Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, and is a regional hub
Airline hub
An airline hub is an airport that an airline uses as a transfer point to get passengers to their intended destination. It is part of a hub and spoke model, where travelers moving between airports not served by direct flights change planes en route to their destinations...

 for Widerøe
Widerøe
Widerøe's Flyveselskap AS, trading as Widerøe, is a regional airline in Norway and part of the SAS Group. It operates a fleet of 34 Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft , serving 41 domestic and 6 international destinations...

, connecting several towns in Eastern Finnmark. The airport served 277,678 passengers in 2009.

History

In 1941, during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

 constructed two runways, at 1000 and 1200 meters, near Kirkenes to perform attacks on the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. The runways were destroyed during the German retreat in 1945.

Widerøe had been performing sea plane flights to the city until the new civilian airport was opened in 1963 − at the same time as the two other primary airports in Finnmark, Alta Airport
Alta Airport
Alta Airport is the airport of Alta, Norway. It is located about northeast of the town center of Alta, near the community Elvebakken on the southern shore of the Altafjord. The airport has a single paved runway. The government-owned Avinor is responsible for operations...

 and Lakselv Airport, Banak
Lakselv Airport, Banak
Lakselv Airport, Banak is located 1,5 km from the town of Lakselv in the municipality of Porsanger in Finnmark county, in northern Norway. The airport also serves Karasjok, some 74 km to the south, with a corresponding airport coach six days a week...

. The new airport had extended the length of the two runways, one of which was since closed. The airport could then handle direct flights to Oslo.

When the regional airport network opened in Finnmark in 1974 Høybuktmoen Airport became one of the hubs where local flights could connect to Oslo flights. Murmansk
Murmansk
Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...

 in Russia was the only international connection at Høybuktmoen Airport, operating three times a week until the route was discontinued by Widerøe.

The new terminal building opened on 4 May 2006, replacing the original building from 1963 which lacked facilities for international arrivals, and lacked sufficient space for the traffic the airport was receiving.

Airlines and destinations

Ground transportation

The airport is connected to the E6
European route E6
European route E 6 is the designation for the main north-south road in Norway, and the west coast of Sweden, running from the southern tip of Sweden, at Trelleborg, into Norway and through almost all of the country north to Finnmark. The route ends close to the Norwegian border with Russia...

 highway. There are several buses serving the airport, synchronized with arrivals. Taxis are also available.

Expansion

There are plans for runway extension that would enable year-round airliner
Airliner
An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...

 services to Central and Western Europe. The estimated cost is 270 million Norwegian krone
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

, with the expected completion in 4 to 5 years.
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