Leknes Airport ( no, Leknes lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving the town of

Leknes is a town in Nordland county, Norway. The town is also the administrative centre of the municipality of Vestvågøy (with 10,764 inhabitants, it is the most populous municipality in Lofoten and Vesterålen). Leknes was designated a "town" ( no ...

and the surrounding areas in the

Lofoten Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolvær ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

county, Norway. The airport is located just outside Leknes in

Vestvågøy Vestvågøy is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Leknes. Some of the villages in the municipality include Ballstad, Borg, B� ...

municipality. The

European route E10 European route E10 is the second shortest Class A road which is part of the International E-road network. It begins in Å, Norway and ends in Luleå, Sweden. The road is about 850 km (530 mi) in length. The Norwegian part of the ...

highway passes along the east side of the airport. In 2014, Leknes Airport had 101,757 passengers. It is operated 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 ...

Service

The airport is served by

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 ...

with

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 connecting the community to

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 ...

and other communities in Nordland. The routes are operated on public service obligation with the Norwegian Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Flights to

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

via

take about 3 hours with connecting routes

Scandinavian Airlines Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known and styled as SAS, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''SAS'' is an abbreviation of the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark ...

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Ground transportation

The airport is located approximately from the town center. There are no buses, but taxis are available.

Future

Avinor is planning building a new primary airport to serve Lofoten and possibly also Vesterålen. The region wants to be more attractive on the conference market which would create more job opportunities outside the tourist season, and there is a need to adopt airports to modern aircraft types. Two locations have been put forward,

Gimsøya Gimsøya is an island in Vågan Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Gimsøya is situated between the islands of Austvågøya and Vestvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago. The island has a population (2016) of 181. The European route E10 ...

() and Hadselsanden (). The former could replace Leknes Airport and

Svolvær Airport Svolvær Airport ( no, Svolvær lufthavn; ) is a regional airport serving the town of Svolvær in Vågan Municipality (and the Lofoten region surrounding Svolvær) in Nordland county, Norway. Service The airport is operated by Avinor. It is ser ...

, the latter could also replace

Stokmarknes Airport 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 Sortlan ...

. As both alternatives imply direct services to Oslo, the leakage to Evenes would be reduced. However weather recordings has shown that Gimsøy, located at the big ocean, is too windy and foggy for an airport. Therefore, the main option now is to extend the runway and terminal of Leknes airport, considering that Svolvær airport has no room for runway extension. No such project is part of the Norwegian

National Transport Plan The National Transport Plan ( no, Nasjonal transportplan or NTP) is a ten-year investment plan for all modes of transport in Norway passed by the Parliament of Norway every four years. The plan coordinates the investments carried out by the Norwegi ...

for 2022–2033.

References

Airports in Nordland Airports in the Arctic Avinor airports Vestvågøy 1972 establishments in Norway Airports established in 1972 {{nordland-geo-stub