Qaanaaq Airport ( kl, Mittarfik Qaanaaq) is an

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 northwest of

Qaanaaq Qaanaaq (), formerly known as Thule or New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is one of the northernmost cities and towns, northernmost towns in the world. The inhabitants of ...

, a settlement in the

Avannaata Avannaata (, da, Det Nordlige, lit=The Northern) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In ...

municipality in northern

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. It was established in 1991 to serve Qaanaaq and neighboring communities because

Thule Air Base Thule Air Base (pronounced or , kl, Qaanaaq Mitarfik, da, Thule Lufthavn), or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, located north o ...

in Pituffik is not open for regular passenger traffic. It is the only civilian airport north of

Upernavik Upernavik (Kalaallisut: "Springtime Place") is a small town in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,092 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. It c ...

and is a lifeline for northern Greenland. Fresh food and other consumer products are transported by air.

Airlines and destinations

Air Greenland operates government contract flights to villages in the Qaanaaq region. These mostly cargo flights are not featured in the timetable, although they can be pre-booked. Departure times for these flights as specified during booking are by definition approximate, with the settlement service optimized on the fly depending on local demand for a given day. Travel from south Greenland to Qaanaaq include plane changes at

Ilulissat Ilulissat, formerly Jakobshavn or Jacobshaven, is the municipal seat and largest town of the Avannaata municipality in western Greenland, located approximately north of the Arctic Circle. With the population of 4,670 as of 2020, it is the t ...

and Upernavik. Travel from other countries include plane changes in Copenhagen, Kangerlussuaq, Ilulissat and Upernavik, or Reykjavik, Ilulissat and Upernavik.

Transfers at Thule Air Base

Travellers bound for Thule Air Base in Pituffik are required to apply for transfer permit from either Rigsombudsmanden in

Nuuk Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other co ...

(residents of Greenland), or the Danish Foreign Ministry (all others).Air Greenland
'Transit at Thule Air Base' Failure to present the permit during check-in results in denial of boarding. The same rules apply for transfers at Pituffik, including a stopover on the way from Qaanaaq to

Savissivik Savissivik (West Greenlandic; old spelling: ''Savigsivik'') or Havighivik ( Inuktun) is a settlement in the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. Located on Meteorite Island, off the northern shores of Melville Bay, the settlement had 5 ...

. Travel from Upernavik (with connections from southwest Greenland) to Qaanaaq is not influenced.

References

{{authority control Airports in Greenland Airports in the Arctic