Stavanger Airport, Sola is an international
airportAn airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
located in the municipality of
SolaSola is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the region of Jæren. The old municipality of Håland was divided into Sola and Madla in 1930....
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
, southwest of
Stavangeris a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway. Stavanger was established as a municipality 1 January 1838...
. It is Norway's third largest airport, and, in addition to
fixed-wing aircraftA fixed-wing aircraft, usually called an airplane, aeroplane or plane, is an aircraft capable of flight using forward motion that causes air to pass over its wings to generate lift. Planes include jet engine and propeller driven vehicles propelled forward by thrust, as well as unpowered aircraft...
, it has significant
helicopterA helicopter is an aircraft that is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors, each rotor consisting of two or more rotor blades. Helicopters are classified as rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft to distinguish them from fixed-wing aircraft because the helicopter achieves lift with the...
traffic for the offshore
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
oil installations. In addition, the
Royal Norwegian Air ForceThe Royal Norwegian Air Force is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian armed forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peace force is approximately 1,430 employees . Six hundred personnel are also serving their one-year national service in the Air Force...
operates Westland
Westland Sea KingThe Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British license-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engines, British made anti-submarine warfare systems and a...
search and rescueSearch and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.-Definitions of Search and Rescue:There are many different definitions of search and rescue, depending on the agency involved....
helicopters from the
Sola Air StationSola Air Station in Sola municipality in Norway is operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force. Air Wing 134 is stationed at Sola along with helicopter Squadron 330....
.
The airport had 82,118 air movements and 3,552,579 passengers in 2008. Five airlines offer domestic flights to nine destinations while eleven airlines offer international flights to 37 destinations. Two helicopter companies operate out of Sola. Most of the air traffic comes from the route to Oslo, which has about 25 daily flights with
Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short to medium range, single aisle, narrow body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has nine variants with the -600, -700, -800 and -900 currently in production.Originally envisioned in...
aircraft.
In the vicinity of the airport there is an aeronautical museum,
Flyhistorisk Museum, SolaFlyhistorisk Museum, Sola is an aviation museum located in Sola, near Stavanger, Norway. The museum was founded in 1984, and is run by local volunteers on an unpaid basis...
.
The facilities
Stavanger Airport, Sola is Norway's oldest airport, opened by King Haakon VII 29 May 1937. The airport was the second to have a
concreteConcrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water, and chemical admixtures...
runwayA runway is a strip of land at an airport on which aircraft can take off and land and forms part of the maneuvering area. Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .By extension, the term has come to mean, in addition, any long, flat, straight area, such as that used in fashion...
in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
. The airport was attacked and captured by
GermanNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
fallschirmjägerare German paratroopers. Fallschirmjäger of Germany in World War II were the first to be committed in large-scale airborne operations. They came to be known as the "Green Devils" by the Allied forces they fought against...
s from 1st battalion of the 1st Regiment, 7th Flieger Division supported by
LuftwaffeLuftwaffe 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 1933 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956.Schweizer Luftwaffe is also the name of the Swiss Air...
aircraft on 9 April 1940. The attack was over in an hour, and the airport remained in German hands for the duration of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. During the war, the German occupation forces and Luftwaffe expanded the airport considerably, as it was a vital strategic asset for the Germans.
Originally, the idea was to locate the Stavanger airport at
ForusStavanger Airport, Forus is a closed airport located at Forus in Sola south of Stavanger, Norway. Built by the German occupational forces during World War II, it was closed due to the vicinity of Stavanger Airport, Sola...
, but after the war the
Royal Norwegian Air ForceThe Royal Norwegian Air Force is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian armed forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peace force is approximately 1,430 employees . Six hundred personnel are also serving their one-year national service in the Air Force...
decided to use Sola temporarily until the new airport was built, and nothing ever became of Forus.
Sola Air StationSola Air Station in Sola municipality in Norway is operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force. Air Wing 134 is stationed at Sola along with helicopter Squadron 330....
has since been of vital importance for the Norwegian armed forces, but gradually lost assignments, and in 1982 the last fighter squadron left the airport.
Stavanger Airport has two passenger terminals, one for airplanes and one for helicopters. When the present terminal was put into use January 28 1987, it was the first airport in Norway to have skybridges, nine in total. The old terminal was then converted into a
heliportA heliport is a small airport suitable only for use by helicopters. Heliports typically contain one or more helipads and may have limited facilities such as fuel, lighting, a windsock, or even hangars...
. The airport has two crossing runways: the main runway, north/south (18/36) and the main runway for helicopters, which is oriented northwest-southeast (11/29).
Expansion of the airplane terminal took place in 2009. The new gates were built without jetbridges. The airport's two largest airlines, SAS and Norwegian, showed little interest in such amenity and desired quicker turnaround times. SAS though later said that they did want jetbridges for their larger jet planes, and only wanted gates without jetbridges for their smaller turboprop aircraft. The lack of jetbridges angered the societies representing the disabled and multiple sclerosis afflicted, and prompting several Rogaland politicians to put pressure on Avinor to reconsider the building. In April 2009, Avinor decided not to build jetbridges.
Civilian airlines
Det Norske Luftfartsselskap (DNL, later Scandinavian Airline Systems or SAS) started flying to Sola after the war, as did Braathens S.A.F.E in 1946 on its routes to Europe and the Far East with the
Douglas DC-3The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Because of its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II it is generally regarded as one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
aircraft. In 1952 Braathens S.A.F.E got the concession to fly the routes
Oslois the capital and largest city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the town was largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish–Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania . Oslo, then an alternative name, became official again in 1925...
-Stavanger, Oslo-
Kristiansandis a city, municipality and the county capital of Vest-Agder county in Southern Norway. Kristiansand municipality is the 6th largest in Norway with a population of 80,109 as of 1 January 2009...
-Stavanger and the coastal route Stavanger-Bergen-
Ålesundis a city and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. It is a sea port, and is noted for its unique concentration of Jugendstil architecture....
-
Trondheimis a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The city of Trondheim was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...
-
Bodøis a city and a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Salten region.The city of Bodø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Bodin was merged with Bodø on 1 January 1968. Skjerstad was merged with Bodø on 1 January 2005...
-
Tromsøis a city and municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø....
. SAS, on the other hand, got the concessions for the Oslo-Bergen, Oslo-northern Norway and the international traffic. This division lasted until the deregulation of air travel in 1994.
WiderøeWiderøes Flyveselskap ASA, trading as Widerøe, is the largest regional airline in the Nordic countries, having a turnover of NOK 1.8 billion and carrying 1.5 million passengers. Widerøes Flyveselskap ASA operates 29 Dash 8 aircraft to 35 destinations in Norway and 6 destinations abroad . The...
established itself at Sola in the late 1980s after they bought Sandefjord-Torp-based
Norsk AirWiderøe Norsk Air AS, formerly known as Vestfoldfly, Norsk Flytjeneste AS and Norsk Air AS, was a Norwegian airline based at Sandefjord Airport, Torp...
.
When the oil exploration in the Norwegian part of the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
started in 1967, there was a sudden need for helicopter transport out to the oil platforms. The first helicopter service was
Helikopter ServiceCHC Helicopter Corporation is the world’s largest global commercial helicopter operator...
, later renamed CHC Norway, who started operations with 2 Sikorsky S-61Ns initially from a makeshift heliport at nearby Forus. The offshore helicopter operations were moved to the Sola in 1989. Braathens Helikopter, owned by Braathens S.A.F.E, also operated helicopters from Sola in the period 1989 - 1994, but was then sold to Helikopter Service.
Norsk HelikopterBristow Norway AS is a Norwegian helicopter company that transports crew to oil installations in the North Sea. It has headquarters in Stavanger and has additional operations out of Bergen, Brønnøysund, Hammerfest and the oil platform Heidrun...
, later renamed Bristow Norway, started their offshore flying at Sola in 1993.
Foreign airlines
The
British AirwaysBritish Airways plc is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Waterside near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport and is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations. Its second hub is London Gatwick...
predecessors had already started operating at Sola after the
warWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but it was only in 1980 that they started regular flights with
BAC One-ElevenThe British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC 1-11, the BAC-111 or the BAC-1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s...
aircraft to
London-HeathrowLondon Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , located in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the world's busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic. It is the world's second busiest airport in total passenger traffic. It is also the largest and busiest airport in the United Kingdom...
. Later, the route was operated with
Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short to medium range, single aisle, narrow body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has nine variants with the -600, -700, -800 and -900 currently in production.Originally envisioned in...
-200/-300/-400s and
Boeing 757The Boeing 757 is a mid-size, narrow-body twinjet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Passenger versions of the 757 can carry between 186 and 279 passengers, and have a maximum range of 3,100 to 3,900 nautical miles depending on variant and seating configuration...
-200s and switched to
London-GatwickLondon Gatwick Airport is London's second largest international airport and second busiest in the United Kingdom after Heathrow. In 2008, it was the world's 28th-busiest airport in terms of passenger numbers and 9th busiest in terms of international passengers...
. In 1994 British Airways employees at Sola were transferred to Braathens S.A.F.E as part of new cooperation between the two airlines. But in 1997
KLMKLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the national airline of the Netherlands and is part of Air France-KLM...
bought 30% of Braathens (as the airline was renamed) and British Airways closed its Stavanger routes, because it lacked its own staff.
Dan-AirDan-Air is a defunct airline in the United Kingdom. It started in 1953 and was absorbed into British Airways in 1992.-History:Dan-Air started in the United Kingdom in May 1953 with a Douglas DC-3 Dakota based at Southend Airport...
flew the route London-Gatwick-
NewcastleNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England...
-Stavanger, until they were taken over by British Airways in 1992.
Norwegian Air ShuttleNorwegian Air Shuttle ASA , trading as Norwegian, is the fifth-largest low-cost airline in Europe, and the second-largest airline in Scandinavia. In 2008, it transported 9.1 million people on 150 routes to 82 destinations, covering across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East...
and
WiderøeWiderøes Flyveselskap ASA, trading as Widerøe, is the largest regional airline in the Nordic countries, having a turnover of NOK 1.8 billion and carrying 1.5 million passengers. Widerøes Flyveselskap ASA operates 29 Dash 8 aircraft to 35 destinations in Norway and 6 destinations abroad . The...
have flown to Newcastle as well.
The oil industry has also required scheduled routes between Stavanger and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, primarily to
Europe'sEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
oil capital
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It has an official population estimate of .Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands...
. In addition to
SASScandinavian Airlines System is the multi-national airline of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the leading carrier in these Scandinavian countries. Its home base is at Stockholm, Sweden. and owned by SAS AB. It is a founding member of the Star Alliance and the founder of Air Greenland, Linjeflyg,...
,
Air AngliaAir Anglia was a wholly privately owned, independent regional British airline formed in 1970. It was based at Norwich Airport. Created as a result of a merger of three smaller operators, the new entity became an important regional scheduled carrier during the 1970s, serving the Eastern half of...
(later
AirUKAir UK was a wholly privately owned, independent regional British airline formed in 1980 as a result of a merger involving three rival UK-based regional airlines. British and Commonwealth -owned British Island Airways and Air Anglia were the two dominant merger partners...
, KLMuk) flew the route. Today, this route is flown by
City Star AirlinesCity Star Airlines was an airline based in Aberdeen, Scotland. It operated scheduled services between energy industry centres in Scotland and Norway, as well as charter services. Its main base was Aberdeen Airport ....
, SAS Norge and
WiderøeWiderøes Flyveselskap ASA, trading as Widerøe, is the largest regional airline in the Nordic countries, having a turnover of NOK 1.8 billion and carrying 1.5 million passengers. Widerøes Flyveselskap ASA operates 29 Dash 8 aircraft to 35 destinations in Norway and 6 destinations abroad . The...
.
In the 1970s
KLM Royal Dutch AirlinesKLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the national airline of the Netherlands and is part of Air France-KLM...
started flights to Stavanger from
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
. They have used the Douglas DC-9-10,
Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short to medium range, single aisle, narrow body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has nine variants with the -600, -700, -800 and -900 currently in production.Originally envisioned in...
-200/-300, Fokker 100, Fokker F-27 and Fokker 50 aircraft, and this route was the first that the KLM operated with Fokker 70s. The route was operated by Braathens between 1997 and 2002. Today, this route is flown by the KLM five times daily with the
Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short to medium range, single aisle, narrow body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has nine variants with the -600, -700, -800 and -900 currently in production.Originally envisioned in...
and Fokker 70 aircraft.
Also,
Air FranceAir France is a French airline headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, France , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
has operated routes to Stavanger, with
Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short to medium range, single aisle, narrow body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has nine variants with the -600, -700, -800 and -900 currently in production.Originally envisioned in...
s, to its hub at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. But the Norwegian authorities have denied, among others,
Northwest AirlinesNorthwest Airlines, Inc. , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, Inc., is a major United States airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport...
the right to start flying intercontinental flights from the United States.
LufthansaDeutsche Lufthansa AG is the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried, and the flag carrier of Germany. The name of the company is derived from Luft , and Hansa .The airline is the world's fifth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried,...
started in 2003 to fly twice daily to its
hubAn 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...
in
FrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001...
in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
with the Canadair RJ-700 aircraft.
Future plans
In 2005 the work to upgrade the terminal building started. This work is scheduled to take some time, and is to be done in several phases. A new domestic arrival hall was opened in the summer of 2005, and should be followed by the refurbishing of the international arrival hall. A new international lounge is scheduled to be finished in the summer of 2006. A new baggage sorting system, and an extension of the check-in areas is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2007.
Avinor is working on the CAT II/LVTO approach system at the airport. This will allow planes to land with as little as 300 meters of horizontal visibility.
Airlines and destinations
Domestic
International
Charter
Summer 2009
Sola Air Station
The armed forces have a number of functions located at the airport. The 330 Squadron operated
Sea KingThe Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British license-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engines, British made anti-submarine warfare systems and a...
search and rescueSearch and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.-Definitions of Search and Rescue:There are many different definitions of search and rescue, depending on the agency involved....
helicopters are the only squadron left at the airport, but still a number of military aircraft can be seen at the airport, among others
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
's AWACS aircraft.
Technical facilities
Sola has quite a number of technical facilities, and has the largest aviation technical environment in Norway. Among others, Braathens had its technical main base at Sola, as does Norwegian Air Shutte, CHC Helikopter Service, Heli-One Norway, Norsk Helikopter, Norcopter,
Pratt & WhitneyPratt & Whitney is an American aircraft engine manufacturer of products widely used in both civil and military aircraft. As one of the "big three" aero-engine manufacturers, it competes with General Electric and Rolls-Royce, although it has also formed joint ventures with both of these companies...
Norway Engine Centre and the air force's helicopter main technical base.
On June 16 2006 the board of SAS decided to close SAS Technical Services at Sola, which resulted in over 300 lost jobs.
Runways
The main runway, the 18/36 runway, is wide, thus the only airstrip in Norway which can land code F planes such as Airbus 380. The two airstrips cross each other, but since they have a different orientation, they could never operate as individual runways. The orientation will however allow planes to take off and land even with heavy wind from east or west.
Accidents
On 9 August 1961
Vickers VC.1 VikingThe Vickers VC.1 Viking was a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. In the aftermath of the war, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines pending the...
3B (registration: G-AHPM), operated by Cunard Eagle Airways (formery
British EagleBritish Eagle International Airlines was a major independent British airline that operated from 1948 to 1968.-Formation and early operations:...
) crashed on into a mountain on approach to Stavanger Airport, Sola from London Heathrow airport with the deaths of all 39 on board: 3 crew, 34 schoolboys from
The Archbishop Lanfranc SchoolThe Archbishop Lanfranc School is a comprehensive secondary school in the Thornton Heath area of Croydon, south London, named after Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1070 to 1089.-History:...
in
Thornton HeathThornton Heath is a district in the London Borough of Croydon, 7.2 miles south of Charing Cross.Thornton Heath High Street is the centre of a large area of north Croydon known as Thornton Heath between West Croydon and South Norwood.-History:...
, London, plus two members of staff from the school. The Norwegian report on the incident concluded that the pilot was off-course for unknown reasons. The aircraft crashed into a hill appx 1,600ft high, appx 8 miles north of the airport at about 16.23 hours
External links