Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen

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Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen
IATA: KKN - ICAO: ENKR
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Avinor
Serves		Kirkenes
Elevation AMSL		283 ft (86 m)
Coordinates		69°43′32.81″N, 029°53′28.66″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
06/24	6,939	2,115	Asphalt
15/33 CLOSED	4,167	1,270

Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen (IATA: KKN, ICAO: ENKR) (Norwegian: Kirkenes lufthavn, Høybuktmoen) is the airport serving Kirkenes in eastern Finnmark, Norway. Like most other Norwegian airports, KKN is operated by Avinor. Kirkenes is a primary airport, with a long runway, and capable of serving jet airplanes, and has direct flights to Oslo. It also serves as a regional hub for Widerøe who offer flights to numerous towns (with only short runways) in Eastern Finnmark from the airport.

The airport has two runways, but only one of them is operational. The operational runway, numbered 06/24, is 2115 metres long, 45 metres wide and covered with asphalt. The second runway runs across the main runway, does not have a solid surface, and is considerably shorter ^[1].

The terminal building is new, opened on May 4, 2006. This replaced the old terminal building from 1963 which lacked facilities for international arrivals, and lacked sufficient space for the traffic KKN was receiving. The airport served 220,838 passengers in 2005. ^[2] The location Høybuktmoen is west of the town, at the base of a peninsula. It is connected to the E6 highway. There are a few, but not many, buses serving the airport.

[edit] History

In 1941, during World War II the Luftwaffe constructed two runways, at 1000 and 1200 meters, near Kirkenes to perform attacks on the Soviet Union. The runways were destroyed during the German retreat in 1945.

A new civilian airport was opened in 1963 at the same time as the two other primary airports in Finnmark, Alta Airport and Lakselv Airport, Banak. The new airport had extended the length of the two runways, but one of them is now closed. Before this Widerøe had been performing sea plane flights to the city. But now the airport got direct flights to Oslo with Scandinavian Airlines. When the regional airport network opened in Finnmark in 1974 Kirkenes Airport became one of the hubs where local flights could connect to Oslo flights.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Being a primary airport, Kirkenes serves as a gateway to southern Norway for several communities in eastern Finnmark. Widerøe operates several feeder services to other cities.

SAS Braathens (Oslo)
Norwegian Air Shuttle (Oslo [seasonal])
Widerøe (Alta, Berlevåg, Båtsfjord, Hammerfest, Honningsvåg, Lakselv, Mehamn, Tromsø, Vadsø, Vardø)
Charter, (Düsseldorf [seasonal])

[edit] External links and references

^ Report from Avinor on building helicopter bases (Kirkenes pp 16-18), PDF-file, in Norwegian
^ Norwegian Bureau of Statistics airport data

Airports of Norway
Primary Airports Alta \| Bardufoss \| Bergen \| Bodø \| Harstad/Narvik \| Haugesund \| Kirkenes \| Kristiansand \| Kristiansund \| Lakselv \| Molde \| Oslo \| Stavanger \| Tromsø \| Trondheim \| Ålesund
Regional Airports Andenes \| Brønnøysund \| Båtsfjord \| Berlevåg \| Fagernes \| Florø \| Førde \| Hammerfest \| Hasvik \| Honningsvåg \| Leknes \| Mehamn \| Mo i Rana \| Mosjøen \| Namsos \| Narvik \| Røros \| Rørvik \| Røst \| Sandane \| Sandnessjøen \| Sogndal \| Stokmarknes \| Svolvær \| Sørkjosen \| Vadsø \| Vardø \| Værøy \| Ørsta/Volda
Overseas Territories Jan Mayen \| Longyearbyen \| Ny-Ålesund \| Svea
Private Notodden \| Sandefjord \| Skien \| Stord
Air Force Stations Andøya \| Banak \| Bardufoss \| Bodø \| Gardermoen \| Rygge \| Sola \| Ørland
Closed Geilo \| Oslo-Fornebu
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