Geilo Airport, Dagali ( no, Geilo flyplass, Dagali; formerly ; ) is a private

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located at Dagali in Hol in

Viken county Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. It was previously a public airport that was both a regional airport and served international tourist

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a airline ticket, ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad h ...

s serving the nearby

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...

s centered on

Geilo is a centre in the municipality of Hol in Viken county, Norway. Geilo is primarily a ski resort town, with around 2,500 inhabitants. It is situated in the valley of Hallingdal, 250 km from Oslo and 260 km from Bergen. The Bergen Line ...

. The airport opened in 1985, but failed commercially and was eventually closed in 2003. Originally featuring a runway, it was extended to in 1988. Now it is limited to which can still be used for private aircraft. The airport has been converted to a go cart track, though there is still some general aviation at the airport. The commercial services have been moved to

Fagernes Airport, Leirin Fagernes Airport, Leirin ( no, Fagernes lufthavn, Leirin; ) is a general aviation airport in Fagernes, in the municipality of Nord-Aurdal, Innlandet county, Norway. It has been an airport for passenger flights, serving Fagernes and the surroundin ...

, which opened in 1987. The airport is owned and operated by a company owned by the municipalities of Hol and

Nore og Uvdal Nore og Uvdal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Viken (county), Viken Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Numedal. The administrative centre of the municipality is ...

History

Geilo Airport was opened in 1985 as a regional airport. On 20 June 1986, Coast Aero Center was awarded the concession for flying from

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

to Geilo Airport, Dagali until 1991. The airline used a Beechcraft 200 Super King Air on the service. At the same time,

Norving Norving A/S was a regional airline that operated in Norway between 1971 and 1993. It had roots back to the establishment of Varangfly in 1959. At its peak, the company had eight bases and 27 aircraft. History Varangfly was founded on 24 July 1959 ...

started operations to Oslo. The ridership from Geilo turned out to be insufficient to make a profit, and both Coast Aero Center and Norving terminated their routes.

Widerøe Widerøes Flyveselskap AS, trading as Widerøe, is a Norwegian airline, and is the largest regional airline operating in the Nordic countries. The airline's fleet of 40 Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft, and 3 Embraer E190-E2 aircraft, serves over 40 ...

and

Norsk Air Norsk Air was a Norwegian airline based at Sandefjord Airport, Torp. At its height from the mid-1980s and onwards it operated scheduled flights to Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim and Copenhagen, and for shorter periods also other Norwegian and ...

said there was not enough ridership for them to be interested. In 1989,

Coast Air Coast Air AS was a regional airline based at Haugesund Airport, Karmøy in Norway. It was Norway's fourth largest airline and operated domestic services within Norway, in addition to international services. Routes were concentrated along the W ...

received a one-year concession to operate from Geilo to Oslo and Stavanger. The company used

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...

aircraft. The service was soon limited to two round trips each week. Construction of a runway expansion from was started in 1988, allowing the airport to be served by jet aircraft in international charter traffic. The 15.3 million

Norwegian krone The krone (, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including Svalbard). Traditionally known as the Norwegian crown in English. It is nominally subdivided into 100 ''� ...

(NOK) investment was financed through a municipal and county-guaranteed loan. Since 1984, the owners had hoped that the airport would become part of a state financing scheme that secured both guarantees for the operation of the airport, as well as subsidies to scheduled traffic. Geilo never received such status, unlike the nearby Fagernes Airport, Leirin which opened in 1987. By 1992, the mayors of Hol and Nore og Uvdal, the municipalities who owned the airport, admitted that it had been a mistake to build the airport. There were less than 1,000 passengers annually, and the scheduled traffic with Coast Air cost the municipalities NOK 1 million per year. In addition came the operating deficit of the airport itself. The company Norcharter had been created by Hol and Nore og Uvdal, along with private investors, but it failed to increase ridership, despite spending NOK 8 million on marketing the region and the airport. Twenty-six municipally-owned airports were taken over by the Norwegian Civil Aviation Administration (now Avinor) on 1 January 1996. Geilo Airport was not among these, but received a NOK 1.5 million annual grant from the state. Following Norway's entry into the

Schengen Agreement The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...

in 2000, more money had to be invested in the airport to rebuild it to meet immigration requirements. The airport set a new record with 8,870 passengers in 2002. From 1 June 2003, a new company, Geilo Lufthavn Drift A/S, made an agreement to take over operations of the airport. But the airport was temporally closed from April to September, and the new company chose to not reopen the airport afterward. The airport has since been turned into a go cart track, but private aircraft can use of the runway.

Statistics

Incidents and accidents

* On 25 April 1992, the pilot and passenger of a

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.

, en route from

Molde Airport, Årø Molde Airport ( no, Molde lufthavn; ) is an international airport serving the town of Molde, Norway. It is on the shore of the Moldefjord at Årø, east of town center. The airport's catchment area covers the district of Romsdal. The airport ...

to Geilo, were killed when the aircraft crashed two kilometers east of Dagali. * On 18 October 1992, a

Piper PA-24 Comanche The Piper PA-24 Comanche is an American four-seat or six-seat, low-wing, all-metal, light aircraft of semimonocoque construction with tricycle retractable landing gear. Piper Aircraft designed and developed the Comanche, which first flew on Ma ...

crashed after losing motor power at altitude. The plane became a total wreck, but the pilot managed to get out after the emergency landing with only a few scratches. * On 19 March 1993, a

Beechcraft Super King Air The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was dropped in 1996. ...

from Trønderfly crashed from the airport while attempting to land. Three people were killed in the accident.

References

{{Good article Airports in Viken Airports established in 1985 Hol 1985 establishments in Norway