Svea Airport ( no, Svea flyplass; ) 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 in and serving the

Sveagruva Sveagruva (), or simply Svea, was a mining settlement in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, lying at the head of Van Mijenfjord. It was the third largest settlement in the archipelago (after Longyearbyen and Barentsburg). Around 300 workers l ...

(also known as Svea) in

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

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 ...

. The airport is owned and operated by

Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani (SNSK), or simply Store Norske, is a Norwegian coal mining company based on the Svalbard archipelago. It was formed in 1916, after a Norwegian purchase of the American Arctic Coal Company (ACC). The company ha ...

, who use the airport to transport their

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

workers from the

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

Longyearbyen Longyearbyen (, locally �lɔ̀ŋjɑrˌbyːən "The Longyear Town") is the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000 and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway. It stretches along the foot of the left bank ...

and

Svalbard Airport, Longyear Svalbard Airport ( no, Svalbard lufthavn; ) is the main airport serving Svalbard in Norway. It is northwest of Longyearbyen on the west coast, and is the northernmost airport in the world with scheduled public flights. The first airport near Lo ...

. The airport features 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 ...

measuring . Flights are operated about thirty times per week by

Lufttransport Lufttransport is a Norwegian helicopter and fixed-wing airline that operates primarily air ambulance helicopters and planes for the Norwegian and Swedish governments. In addition the airline offers services including surveillance for the Norwegian ...

using their two

Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. Two hundred and forty-five were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 19 ...

History

The need for an airport at Svea arose during the mid 1990s. Store Norske, which had until then been mining coal in Longyearbyen, was in the process of moving the bulk of its mining operations to Svea. A road between the two towns was out of the question for environmental reasons. The company proposed that Svea would be built as a dorm town, where workers would commute for the week. They would have their permanent homes and families in Longyearbyen. On 10 April 1994, Store Norske's board stated that they could not support the two main alternatives, construction of an all-new permanent dwelling town in Svea, and commuting from the mainland. Store Norske cited their commitment to keep Longyearbyen a vibrant community. The airport was officially opened on 16 February 1995. In March 1996, Store Norske, Kings Bay, and Lufttransport signed an agreement concerning intra-island transport out of Longyearbyen. This involves the introduction of Dornier 228 aircraft, which will operate for Store Norske to Svea and for Kings Bay to

Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben ( no, Ny-Ålesund flyplass, Hamnerabben; ) is an airport serving the research community of Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway. The airport is owned by Kings Bay, who also owns the company town. The only flights avai ...

. Store Norske commences construction of the new town and mine, and mining operations start in January 1997.

Facilities

The airport is located in the settlement of Sveagruva. Just like the rest of the company town, it is owned and operated by Store Norske. Svea Airport is situated at 10 meters (32 ft)

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 ...

, on the north shore of

van Mijenfjorden Van Mijenfjorden is the third-longest fjord in Norway's Svalbard archipelago. It lies in the southern portion of Spitsbergen island, south of Nordenskiöld Land and north of Nathorst Land. The fjord is long, being separated from Bellsund further ...

. It consists of a gravel

aligned 04–22 (roughly northeast–southwest), which measures .

Airlines and destinations

Svea Airport is a private airport and not open to public flights, or any non-emergency landings by any flights not chartered by Store Norske. All flights at Svea fly to Svalbard Airport, Longyear. They are operated by

, who operate two nineteen-seat

aircraft on the service. The airline operates up to thirty flights per week. These are only available for employees of and others traveling for Store Norske. Lufttransport transports 21,000 people and 500 tonnes of freight annually on its Svalbard routes, the vast majority of which is on the Svea route.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Portal bar, Aviation, Norway Airports in Svalbard Airports established in 1995 1995 establishments in Norway Sveagruva