The Norwegian STOLport network (in Norwegian ''kortbanenettet i Noreg'' (Nynorsk) or ''kortbanenettet i Norge'' (Bokmål)) is a network of

STOLport A STOLport or STOLPORT was an airport designed with STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) operations in mind, usually for an aircraft class of certain weight and size. The term "STOLport" did not appear to be in common usage as of 2008, although was c ...

s, meaning that they are

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 ...

s with short

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 ...

s. The standard length of these runways is 800 m, compared to around 2500 m for a normal airport with 6-seat wide jetliners. In addition to shorter length, these airports are also narrower, with a standard width of 30 m compared to that of 60 m, respectively. They can only be used with small propeller aircraft. As of 2020, 26 of these airports are in use and 4 have been closed. The Norwegian STOLport network is a result of political decisions in the 1960s and start of the 1970s. The goal was to meet the requirement for better

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

out in the countryside, where there was a great desire for the establishment of airports. The network was officially opened 30 June 1968 by

minister of transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...

Håkon Kyllingmark Håkon Olai Kyllingmark (19 January 1915 – 12 August 2003) was a Norwegian military officer and businessman. He served as a politician for the Conservative Party and was elected to the Norwegian Parliament. Biography He was born at Kjelv ...

together with

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

s, county governors and representatives of the airlines. Together they flew the route

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

–

Namsos ( sma, Nåavmesjenjaelmie) is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Namsos. Some of the villages in the municipality include Bangsund, Kl ...

–

Brønnøysund Brønnøysund () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the administrative centre of Brønnøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is also a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality within Nordland county. ...

–

Sandnessjøen Sandnessjøen is a town and the administrative centre of Alstahaug Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Sandnessjøen was granted special trading privileges in the late 1600s and it received town status in 1999. Sandnessjøen is located on ...

–

Mo i Rana Mo i Rana () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city, and the administrative centre of the Municipalities of Norway, municipality of Rana, Norway, Rana, in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the Helgeland region of Nordland, just sou ...

–

Bodø Bodø (; smj, Bådåddjo, sv, Bodö) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Bodø (which is also the capital of Nordland count ...

, with ribbon-cutting

opening ceremonies An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

at each stop. Most of the airports were subsequently built in the period 1968–1975.

Background

The

ministry of transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government age ...

with Håkon Kyllingmark from the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

was a promoter for the work of developing new airports, especially in the northernmost counties of Norway. By the start of the 1970s, oil revenues had not yet taken hold in the Norwegian economy, so it was important to keep costs down. The result of this work was a standard for short airports, where the runway, approach equipment, terminal buildings, et cetera, was standardized and simple. In

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, a network of regional 1500 meter long runways was built during the same time.

Remote control towers

On 20 October 2020, Avinor opened a remote control tower situated in

as a cost effective solution intended for STOLports in Norway with little traffic. The remote tower technology is planned to be rolled out to a total of 15 airports in Norway by the end of 2022.

Airplanes

The largest airplanes utilizing the Norwegian STOLport network today are Bombardier DHC-8 Dash-8 and

ATR 42 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and ...

. During the first years, airlines such as

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 d ...

mostly used the

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 ...

with 13 seats.

Future

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 ...

, the Norwegian airport authority worries about the future availability of aircraft for runway, in future when older aircraft currently used retires. Currently,

DHC-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 ...

-100 aircraft, manufactured in the early 1990s, are used. Avinor has found that after 2010, no new aircraft can be bought which has more than 20 seats and is able to use such short runways. For this reason there are plans to extend runways to or in some cases to build new airports, and to close some combined with road improvements. To extend them to above requires wider runway and greater space between the runway and buildings. This means a much higher cost, probably totally new runway, or new airport buildings. The least used will not be extended, but will have to be flown with very small aircraft. In 2022

ATR ATR may refer to: Medicine * Acute transfusion reaction * Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related, a protein involved in DNA damage repair Science and mathematics * Advanced Test Reactor, nuclear research reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, ...

will launch a modification of its 48-seat

which will be able to use 800 meter runways.Electric Planes Or Bust: The Challenge Facing Norway’s Widerøe
/ref> In the national plan for transportation 2022–2033 is however only Mo i Rana selected for a major project, a new airport.

List of current STOLports in Norway

The following is a list of the 26 STOLports in Norway which are currently in use per 2020: {, class="wikitable" !Airport !County !Runway length (m) , - ,

Berlevåg airport Berlevåg Airport ( no, Berlevåg lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving Berlevåg Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The airport is situated northwest of the village of Berlevåg and is owned and operated by Avinor. The air ...

, Finnmark , 889 , - ,

Brønnøysund airport, Brønnøy Brønnøysund () is a town and the administrative centre of Brønnøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is also a former municipality within Nordland county. The village of Brønnøysund originally was declared a ladested in 1923 wh ...

, Nordland , 1 199 , - ,

Båtsfjord Airport Båtsfjord Airport ( no, Båtsfjord lufthavn, ) is a regional airport serving Båtsfjord in Troms og Finnmark, Norway. It consists of a runway and served 14,485 passengers in 2016. A further 14,663 landed and started at the airport ...

, Finnmark , 1 000 , - ,

Florø Airport Florø Airport ( nn, Florø lufthamn, ) is a regional airport serving the town of Florø in Kinn Municipality, in the west central part of Vestland county, Norway. It is situated on the southern shore of the island of Florelandet, adjacent to the ...

, Vestland , 1 300 , - ,

Førde airport, Bringeland Førde is a former municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It was located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative center was the town of Førde which in 2016 had 10,255 inhabitants. Other villages in Førde ...

, Vestland , 1 019 , - ,

Hammerfest airport Hammerfest Airport ( no, Hammerfest lufthavn; ) is a regional airport at Prærien in Hammerfest, Norway. It is operated by the state-owned Avinor and handled 145,396 passengers in 2014, making it the third-busiest regional airport in the countr ...

, Finnmark , 866 , - ,

Hasvik airport Hasvik Airport ( no, Hasvik lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving Hasvik Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The airport is located in the village of Hasvik on the island of Sørøya. In 2012, Hasvik Airport had 7,629 passeng ...

, Finnmark , 909 , - ,

Honningsvåg airport, Valan , other_name = , native_name = , nickname = , settlement_type = Town , image_skyline = Honningsvåg-01.jpg , image_caption = View of the city , pushpin_map = Finnmark#Nor ...

, Finnmark , 840 , - ,

Leknes airport Leknes Airport ( no, Leknes lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving the town of Leknes and the surrounding areas in the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. The airport is located just outside Leknes in Vestvågøy municipality. ...

, Nordland , 799 , - ,

Mehamn airport Mehamn Airport ( no, Mehamn lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving the village of Mehamn in Gamvik Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It also serves the villages Kjøllefjord and Gamvik. The airport is outside of the village o ...

, Finnmark , 800 , - ,

Mo i Rana airport, Røssvoll Mo i Rana Airport ( no, Mo i Rana lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving the town of Mo i Rana in the municipality of Rana in Nordland county, Norway. The airport is located about outside the town in the village of Røssvoll. In 2014 Mo i Ra ...

, Nordland , 799 , - ,

Mosjøen airport, Kjærstad Mosjøen (; sma, Mussere) is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Vefsn Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Mosjøen is the oldest town in the Helgeland region, with only the Bodø (town), town of Bodø being older within Nordland c ...

, Nordland , 869 , - ,

Namsos airport, Høknesøra Namsos Airport ( no, Namsos lufthavn; ), referred locally as Høknesøra Airport, is a regional airport located along the Namsen river, just outside the town of Namsos in Trøndelag county, Norway. The airport is served with Dash 8 aircraft from ...

, Trøndelag , 800 , - ,

Rørvik airport, Ryum Rørvik is a port town and administrative centre in the municipality of Nærøysund in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is on the eastern side of the Vikna archipelago on the island of Inner-Vikna. The town has a population (2022) of 3,385 and a ...

, Trøndelag , 830 , - ,

Røst airport Røst Airport ( no, Røst lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving Røst Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The airport is located on the northern edge of the main island of Røstlandet, just north of the main village of Røstlandet. I ...

, Nordland , 799 , - ,

Sandane airport, Anda Sandane Airport ( no, Sandane lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving the village of Sandane in Vestland county, Norway. It perpendicularly straddles the Anda peninsula in Gloppen Municipality between the Nordfjorden and Gloppefjorden. The air ...

, Vestland , 970 , - ,

Sandnessjøen airport, Stokka Sandnessjøen is a town and the administrative centre of Alstahaug Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Sandnessjøen was granted special trading privileges in the late 1600s and it received town status in 1999. Sandnessjøen is located on ...

, Nordland , 1 199 , - ,

Sogndal airport, Haukåsen Sogndal Airport ( no, Sogndal lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving Sogndal Municipality and the surrounding area in Vestland, Norway. It is situated at Haukåsen, from Kaupanger and from Sogndalsfjøra. It serves the whole Sogn district. T ...

, Vestland , 1 110 , - ,

Stokmarknes airport, Skagen Stokmarknes Airport ( no, Stokmarknes lufthavn; ) is an airport in Hadsel Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the island of Langøya, about northeast of the town of Stokmarknes and about southwest of the town of Sortland. ...

, Nordland , 889 , - ,

Stord airport, Sørstokken Stord Airport ( nn, Stord lufthamn; ) is a municipal regional airport located at Sørstokken in Stord Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. Located from Leirvik and on the island of Stord, it is the only airport with scheduled services in S ...

, Vestland , 1 460 , - , Svolvær airport, Helle , Nordland , 876 , - ,

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 ...

, Troms , 859 , - , Vadsø airport , Finnmark , 870 , - ,

Vardø airport, Svartnes ( fi, Vuoreija, fkv, Vuorea, se, Várggát) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county in the extreme northeastern part of Norway. Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway, more to the east than Saint Petersburg or Istanbul. The administra ...

, Finnmark , 1 085 , - , Ørsta-Volda airport, Hovden , Møre og Romsdal , 1 070 , - Sources for runway length can be found in the respective articles.

Closed STOLports in Norway

The following four STOLports have been closed: *

Førde airport, Øyrane Førde Airport, Øyrane (; no, Førde lufthavn, Øyrane) was a regional airport located at Øyrane in Førde, Norway. The municipal airport first opened as a water aerodrome, receiving a runway in 1970. Scheduled services started the following ...

(closed 1986) – replaced by a new STOLport *

Værøy airport Værøy Airport ( no, Værøy lufthavn; ) was a regional airport located just southwest of the village of Nordland on the island of Værøya in Værøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Operated between 1986 and 1990, it had an asphal ...

(closed 1990) – replaced by a new heliport * Båtsfjord Airport, Båtsfjorddalen, (closed 1999) – replaced by a new STOLport *

Narvik airport, Framnes Narvik Airport, Framnes ( no, Narvik lufthavn, Framnes; ) is a former public regional airport closed down in 2017 in Narvik Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It was located at Framnes in the town of Narvik, along the Ofotfjorden. It w ...

(closed 2017) – road shortcut built to a larger airport

References

Airports in Norway Aviation in Norway