Sørkjosen Airport (; ) is 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 ...

located at the village of

Sørkjosen , , or is a village in Nordreisa Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The village is located along the shores of the Reisafjorden about northwest of the municipal center of Storslett. Sørkjosen has many industries including fishing, dairy pro ...

Nordreisa Municipality , (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami, ), or is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Storslett. Other villages include O ...

Troms Troms (; ; ; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. It borders Finnmark county to the northeast and Nordland county in the southwest. Norrbotten Län in Sweden is located to the south and further southeast is a shorter border with ...

county,

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 ...

, about from the municipal center of

Storslett , , or is the administrative centre of Nordreisa Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The village is located at the southern end of the Reisafjorden along the mouth of the river Reisaelva. The village has a population (2023) of 1,830 which g ...

. Owned and operated by the state-owned

Avinor Avinor AS is a state-owned aksjeselskap, 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 wa ...

, it handled 15,198 passengers in 2014. The airport has a

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

and is served by

Widerøe Widerøes Flyveselskap AS, trading as Widerøe, is a Norwegian airline, and the largest regional airline operating in the Nordic countries. The airline's fleet of 48 aircraft includes 45 De Havilland Dash 8 turboprops as well as 3 Embraer 1 ...

, which operates regional routes using the Dash 8-100 to

Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

, and some communities and towns in

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

public service obligation In the context of European Union law, a public service obligation or PSO is an obligation imposed on an organisation by legislation or contract to provide a service of general interest within EU territories. PSOs may operate in any field of publi ...

contracts. The airport opened in 1974 and was originally served using

de Havilland Canada 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 Ai ...

aircraft. Dash 8s were introduced in 1995 and two years later ownership was transferred from Nordreisa Municipality to the state.

History

Sørkjosen was launched as part of a national network of regional short take-off and landing airport which was proposed in the mid-1960s. The final decision to build the airport was taken by

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

in 1972. Both

and Norving applied to operate the subsidized regional routes in

, which included the route to

. Widerøe was awarded the contract in 1973. Sørkjosen Airport opened on 1 August 1974, the same day as four regional airports in Finnmark. Sorkjosen-lufthavn

A new fire station, serving both the airport and the municipality, was completed in 1992, costing 3.2 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 ...

. A five-week strike by three employees took place in 1992, where they demanded a

collective agreement A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with a ...

. The strike stopped all traffic at the airport, but the employees never received their demands. The Civil Aviation Administration (later renamed Avinor) recommended in 1994 that Sørkjosen and eight other airports be considered closed, as they had high costs and low patronage. Widerøe served the airport using Twin Otters until 1995, when they were replaced by the Dash 8. The airport received subsidies of 3.9 million

(NOK) in 1996, which allowed the airport to operate with a profit of NOK 1.4 million. The state and the Civil Aviation Administration took over ownership and operations of the airport from 1 January 1997, in exchange for NOK 3.9 million being paid to Nordreisa Municipality. Ground handling remained a municipal responsibility. Flights to Sørkjosen have been subject to

s since 1 April 1997. In the mid-1990s, Nordreisa Municipal Council attempted to change the airport's name from Sørkjosen to Nordreisa. They argued that it was necessary to use the Nordreisa name to market the region as a tourist destination. The application was rejected by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, who stated that airports were required by regulation to be named after a settlement rather than a municipality.

Airport security Airport security includes the techniques and methods used in an attempt to protect passengers, staff, aircraft, and airport property from malicious harm, crime, terrorism, and other threats. Aviation security is a combination of measures and hum ...

was introduced on 1 January 2005. This required the terminal to be slightly rebuilt; while it previously had a common departure and arrivals hall, it had to be separated into two areas. The municipality therefore decided to transfer the ownership of the ground handling service to the three employees. Avinor carried out a major upgrade to the

runway safety area A runway safety area (RSA) or runway end safety area (RESA, if at the end of the runway) is defined as "the surface surrounding the runway prepared or suitable for reducing the risk of damage to airplanes in the event of an undershoot, overshoot, ...

and landing lights in 2008 and 2009. The investments cost NOK 40 million. The expansion of the safety area resulted in part of the lot of Birkelund Sawmill being

expropriated Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

Facilities

The airport has a asphalt runway aligned 15–33 (roughly north–south). The airport consists of a passenger terminal and an operations building. The terminal has a capacity of sixty passengers per hour and one airliner on the apron. Twenty people work at the airport, which is five minutes from

. Free parking, taxis and car rental is available.

Airlines and destinations

Sørkjosen Airport is served by

with Dash 8-100 aircraft connecting the community with

and airports in Finnmark. The routes are operated on public service obligation with the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The airport had 15,198 passengers, 2,343 aircraft movements and handled 0 tonnes of cargo in 2014, and 22,256 passengers in 2017. Sørkjosen airport's catchment area covers northern

and it is the only regional airport in the county (Tromsø and Bardufoss are primary).

Statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorkjosen Airport 1974 establishments in Norway Airports established in 1974 Airports in Troms Avinor airports Nordreisa