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Geilo Airport, Dagali (; formerly ; ) is a private
airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...
located at
Dagali Dagali is a small mountain village in Buskerud, Norway. Summary Dagali is located in Hol, Norway, Hol municipality. The village stretches from Pålsbufjorden on the east to the border of the Hardangervidda National Park in the west, a distance of ...
in Hol in
Buskerud Buskerud () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Innlandet, Vestland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardanger ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. It was previously a public airport that was both a
regional airport A domestic airport is an airport that handles only flights within the same country. Domestic airports do not have customs and immigration facilities and so cannot handle flights to or from a foreign airport. These airports often have short r ...
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 ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...
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 Am ...
s centered on
Geilo Geilo () is a centre in the municipality of Hol, Norway, Hol in Buskerud, Buskerud 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  ...
. 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 (; ) is a general aviation airport in Fagernes, in the Municipalities of Norway, municipality of Nord-Aurdal, Innlandet county, Norway. It has been an airport for passenger flights, serving Fagernes and the surrounding va ...
, 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 municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Numedal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rødberg. The area of ''Nore'' was separated from the municipality of ...
.


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, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...
to Geilo Airport, Dagali until 1991. The airline used a Beechcraft 200 Super King Air on the service. At the same time, Norving 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 and Norsk Air said there was not enough ridership for them to be interested. In 1989, Coast Air 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 in the mid-1960s and still in production today. Built by De Havilland Canada from 1965 to 1988, Viking ...
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 (, currency sign, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); ISO 4217, code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is the currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including List of possessions of Norway, overseas territories and dependencies). It was t ...
(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.Molde Airport, Årø 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 single-engine, low-wing, all-metal monoplane of semimonocoque construction with tricycle Landing gear, retractable landing gear and four or six seats. The Comanche was designed and built by Piper Aircraft ...
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 marketing, marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was droppe ...
from Trønderfly crashed from the airport while attempting to land. Three people were killed in the accident.


References

{{Good article Airports in Buskerud Airports established in 1985 Hol, Norway 1985 establishments in Norway