Kautokeino Airfield ( no, Kautokeino flyplass; ) is a

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

aerodrome located in

Kautokeino Kautokeino ( no, Kautokeino; se, Guovdageaidnu ; fkv, Koutokeino; fi, Koutokeino) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. Other villages ...

Troms og Finnmark Troms og Finnmark (; sme, Romsa ja Finnmárku ; fkv, Tromssa ja Finmarkku; fi, Tromssa ja Finnmark, lit. Troms and Finnmark in English language, English), is a Counties of Norway, county in Northern Norway, northern Norway that was established ...

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 consists of a gravel

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

, built by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was rebuilt in 1958 by the

Royal Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) ( no, Luftforsvaret, , The Air Defence) 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 peacetime establishment is approximatel ...

to supply its radar station at Kautokeino. It is largely unused and is now owned by the

Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property The Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property ( no, Statsbygg) is a Norway, Norwegian etat, government agency that manages central parts of the real estate portfolio of the Government of Norway. Operation The Norwegian Directorate ...

and the

Finnmark Estate The Finnmark Act () of 2005 transferred about 96% (about 46,000 km2) of the area in the Finnmark county in Norway to the inhabitants of Finnmark. This area is managed by the Finnmark Estate agency. The Finnmark Estate is managed by a board of dir ...

. Local politicians have called for the aerodrome to be upgraded to a regional airport, but this has been rejected by

Avinor Avinor AS is a state-owned limited company 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 ...

History

The airfield was built by the Luftwaffe as an emergency landing field during the early 1940s. It also hosted a detachment of

reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using photography), signals intelligence, as ...

. The Royal Norwegian Air Force established a radio station at Kautokeino in 1945. Transport to the new airfield was among other means carried out using seaplanes which used the

Altaelva Altaelva ( en, Alta River; sme, Álttáeatnu; fkv, Alattionjoki) is the third-longest river in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The river begins in the mountains and lakes in Kautokeino Municipality, near the border with Troms og Finnmark coun ...

river to land. The station was upgraded in 1955 and received a radar and was designated as a reporting post. Its first upgrade took place in 1958, the same year as renovations of the airfield were carried out. The main users of the airfield were

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 ...

s from

Bodø Main Air Station Bodø Air Station (; no, Bodø hovedflystasjon) is a military air base of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) located in the town of Bodø in Bodø Municipality, Nordland county, Norway. It is home to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon ...

. On occasion supplies would be dropped by parachute. Only once has a jet fighter landed here, even if the field is too short for them. In June 1970 an F5 landed and took off, then using a

parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...

and extra rockets.

Enontekiö Airport Enontekiö Airport ( fi, Enontekiön lentoasema) is an airport located in Enontekiö, Finnish Lapland, west southwest of Hetta, the municipal centre of Enontekiö. Overview It is mainly used for charter flights during the winter, particularly ...

in Finland started marketing itself as Enontekiö–Kautokeino Saami Airport from 2008, although

Finavia Finavia Oyj, formerly the Finnish Civil Aviation Administration, is the public limited company responsible for maintaining and developing Finland's airport network. Finavia manages and develops 20 airports around the country, 18 of which primar ...

does not use the term any more. Enontekiö is located from Kautokeino. Local politicians have proposed that Kautokeino Airfield be redeveloped as a regional airport. In 2007 a unison municipal council supported an upgrade to the airport. They cited that Kautokeino would receive a hotel from 2008 and that it would be necessary to have an airport to support the village's tourism industry. A secondary argument is that an upgraded airport could be used for an

air ambulance Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...

service. Finnmark County Council voted with a single decisive vote in 2010 to work towards making Kautokeino Finnmark's twelfth regional airport.

Facility

The airfield is located north of the village centre, at an elevation of

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

in a flat area. It consists of a gravel runway aligned 01–19 (roughly north–south). There is no regular traffic on the airfield. The aerodrome is owned by the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property, which leases the land from the Finnmark Estate.

Future

Avinor, the agency responsible for running state-owned airports, conducted an analysis in 2012 of upgrading Kautokeino to a regional airport with a runway. Kautokeino's population of 2,935 make an estimated 10,000 annual flights from

Alta Airport Alta Airport ( no, Alta lufthavn; ) is an international airport serving Alta, a town and municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The airport is located at Elvebakken, east of the city center. It has a single, runway numbered 11/29, ...

, located by road and 1 hour and 50 minutes from the village. Avinor studied two alternative services, one with three daily flights directly to Tromsø and one using the existing

Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...

aircraft network. The latter would require a stop-over at

Sørkjosen Airport Sørkjosen Airport ( no, Sørkjosen lufthavn; ) is a regional airport located at the village of Sørkjosen in Nordreisa Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway, about from the municipal center of Storslett. Owned and operated by th ...

before Tromsø, allowing for two daily services, or directly with only one. Either way this gives an average 20 daily passengers per direction. Such a route would need

subsidies A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

of about 10 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 ''� ...

per year (NOK). Construction of an airport is estimated to cost NOK 530 million and have an annual operating cost of NOK 28 million. An economic analysis showed that the airport would have a negative

net present value The net present value (NPV) or net present worth (NPW) applies to a series of cash flows occurring at different times. The present value of a cash flow depends on the interval of time between now and the cash flow. It also depends on the discount ...

for society of NOK 1014 million, excluding operating subsidies for the airline. There is little time gain from the project as travellers to Oslo would have to fly via Sørkjosen to Tromsø and there change aircraft, instead of taking direct flights from Alta. Only passengers having Tromsø as destination would have a gain from an airport. Avinor has recommended not upgrading the Kautokeino Airport.

Accidents and incidents

Junkers Ju 52/3m Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (JFM, earlier JCO or JKO in World War I, English: Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works) more commonly Junkers , was a major German aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturer. It was founded there in Dessau, Germ ...

transport aircraft of the Luftwaffe crashed at the airfield in 1944, resulting in a

write-off A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

References

{{Portal bar, Aviation, World War II, Norway Airports in Troms og Finnmark Kautokeino Luftwaffe airports in Norway Royal Norwegian Air Force airfields Military installations in Troms og Finnmark