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Keflavík International Airport

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Keflavík International Airport

Keflavíkurflugvöllur
File:Keflavíkurflugvöllur logo.svg
Aerial view of the airport
Summary
Airport typePublic
Owner/OperatorIsavia Limited
ServesGreater Reykjavík Area
LocationKeflavík, Iceland
Hub for
Elevation AMSL52 m / 171 ft
Websitekefairport.is
Map
KEF/BIKF is located in Iceland
KEF/BIKF
KEF/BIKF
Location in Iceland
Map
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
02/20 3,054 10,020 Asphalt
11/29 3,065 10,056 Asphalt
Statistics (2012 and 2013)
Passengers2,400,000(from jan 1 to nov 1) estimated 2,750,000(2013) up 15% from 2,380,310(2012)
Cargo38,986(2012) t
Sources: [1] AIP Iceland at ICAA[2]
Statistics: Isavia Limited[3] [4]

Keflavík International Airport (Template:Lang-is) (IATA: KEF, ICAO: BIKF), also known as Reykjavík-Keflavík Airport, is the largest airport in Iceland and the country’s main hub for international transportation. It is situated 1.7 NM (3.1 km; 2.0 mi) west of Keflavík[2] and 50 km (31 mi) south-west of Reykjavík. The airport has three runways, of which two are operated, and the airport area is about 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi). Most international journeys to or from Iceland pass through this airport.

The main carriers at Keflavík are Icelandair and WOW air, who make the airport their main hub. The airport is almost exclusively an international airport; most domestic flights are flown from Reykjavík Airport, which lies 3 km (1.9 mi) from Reykjavík’s city centre, although seasonally flights from Akureyri are flown to Keflavík. Keflavík Airport is operated by Isavia, a government enterprise.

History

Airport history

The airport was built by the United States military during World War II. The U.S. Army Air Forces desired an airfield at Keflavík capable of operating heavy bombers, in addition to a fighter strip. Funds were allocated in January 1942 and construction began on the fighter strip (known as Patterson Field) in May. Two runways of the fighter field were in use by July when Operation Bolero commenced. The bomber field, known as Meeks Field, was begun in July by military and civilian contractor crews, but the civilian contractor was soon relieved by the newly formed U.S. Navy construction battalions Seabees. Meek Field was dedicated on 23 March 1943 and by May stopover service for transatlantic military flights was in operation.

During the war the airport complex only served military purposes, but at war's end it became a refueling stop for the quickly developing international civil aviation crossing the Atlantic. At the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1947, the airport was handed over to Iceland and renamed Keflavík Airport. The Airport was operated jointly by Iceland and the United States for transiting civil and military flights. U.S. forces returned to Keflavík in 1951 under the auspices of NATO (see Naval Air Station Keflavik) and joint operation continued until 30 September 2006, when the military installation was handed over to the government of Iceland.

With the re-construction of the military base at Keflavík during the 1950s, the air terminal found itself positioned in the middle of the base. International travelers thus had to enter military check points to reach their flights for most of the time, which gave the feeling that the U.S. military controlled access to and from Iceland. This continued until 1987 when the civilian terminal was relocated. The former Agreed Military Area at Keflavík was re-designated "Airport, Security and Development Area" under the supervision of the Keflavík International Airport Ltd. (established 1 January 2009), the Icelandic Defence Agency and the Keflavík Airport Development Corporation (Kadeco), respectively. The former military encampment area (U.S. Naval Air Station Keflavik) being developed by Kadeco has been named Ásbrú to reflect its new role. The airport is in the little village named Sandgerði, but the runway leads to Keflavík

The 10,000-foot-long (3,000 m) and 200-foot-wide (61 m) runways are long enough to support NASA's Space Shuttle and also the Antonov An-225. On 29 June 1999, Concorde G-BOAA flew from Heathrow Airport to Reykjavík (Keflavík airport). Concorde has been there earlier.[5]

Terminal

Waiting room in the terminal

The Airport has one terminal named Leifur Eiríksson Air Terminal ([Flugstöð Leifs Eiríkssonar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), named for Leif Ericson. It was opened the 6th of April 1987 and separated the airport's civil traffic from the military base. It was later extended with the opening of the South Building in 2001 (not a separate terminal) to comply with the requirements of the Schengen Agreement. The North Building was later enlarged and finished in 2007. The terminal has duty-free stores in the departure and arrival lounges.

Future

In 2014 or 2015, the current terminal will be enlarged or a new one will be built.[6] There are also plans to add a third runway.[7]

There is a political discussion what do to with the Reykjavík Airport, which takes up valuable space in central Reykjavík, and is noisy. If closing it, the main option would be to move domestic operations to Keflavík. That would increase domestic door-to-door travel time, but decrease international travel time to other parts of Iceland.

Airlines and destinations

Although the population of Iceland is only about 300,000, there are scheduled flights to and from nine locations in the United States (Anchorage, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, Newark, New York, Orlando, Seattle, and Washington), four in Canada (Edmonton, Vancouver, Halifax and Toronto) and 31 cities across Europe. The largest carrier operating out of Keflavík is Icelandair. On 23 October 2012 WOW air acquired Iceland Express[8] making it the second largest Icelandic carrier and the second largest at Keflavík.

Keflavík Airport only handles international flights (except for flights to Akureyri in connection with certain Air Iceland’s flights to Greenland), domestic flights and flights to Greenland and the Faroe Islands are operated from Reykjavík’s domestic airport. When changing between domestic and international flights, a 50 km (31 mi) bus transfer is usually needed, and at least three hours time between flights is recommended.

Passenger

AirlinesDestinations
Air Berlin Summer seasonal: Berlin-Tegel, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Munich
Air Greenland Summer seasonal: Nuuk
Austrian Airlines
operated by Tyrolean Airways
Summer seasonal: Vienna
Delta Air Lines Summer seasonal: New York-JFK
easyJet Bristol, Edinburgh, London-Luton, Manchester
easyJet Switzerland Basel/Mulhouse (begins 2 April 2014)
Germanwings Summer seasonal: Berlin-Tegel (begins 7 June 2014), Cologne/Bonn, Hamburg (begins 5 June 2014), Stuttgart
Icelandair Amsterdam, Boston, Copenhagen, Denver, Edmonton (begins 5 March 2014),[9] Frankfurt, Glasgow-International, Helsinki, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow, Manchester, Munich, New York-JFK, Newark, Oslo-Gardermoen, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Seattle/Tacoma, Stockholm-Arlanda, Toronto-Pearson
Summer seasonal: Anchorage,[10] Barcelona, Bergen, Billund, Brussels, Geneva (begins 24 May 2014),[11] Gothenburg-Landvetter, Halifax, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan-Malpensa, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Petersburg,[10] Stavanger, Trondheim, Vancouver (begins 13 May 2014),[11] Washington-Dulles, Zurich[10]
Summer seasonal charter: Dublin
Winter seasonal: Orlando-Sanford
Icelandair
operated by Air Iceland
Summer seasonal: Akureyri[12]
Lufthansa Summer seasonal: Düsseldorf
Niki Summer seasonal: Vienna
Norwegian Air Shuttle Bergen (begins 31 March 2014), Oslo-Gardermoen
Primera Air Summer seasonal: Alicante, Oslo-Gardermoen
Scandinavian Airlines Oslo-Gardermoen
Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium Summer seasonal: Brussels
Transavia.com France Summer seasonal: Paris-Orly
Vueling Summer Seasonal: Barcelona
WOW air Berlin-Schönefeld, Copenhagen, London-Gatwick
Summer seasonal: Alicante, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, Lyon, Milan-Malpensa, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salzburg, Stuttgart, Vilnius, Warsaw-Chopin, Zurich

Cargo

Cities with direct international air links to Keflavík
AirlinesDestinations
Air Atlanta Icelandic Bagram, Frankfurt, Kuwait, Luxembourg
Icelandair Cargo East Midlands, Liège, Humberside, New York-JFK
TNT Airways Liège, New York-JFK
UPS Airlines
operated by Bluebird Cargo
Cologne/Bonn, Cork, Edinburgh, Moncton

Traffic and statistic

Busiest Routes from Klefavik (2012)[13]
Rank City Airline
1 Norway Oslo-Gardermoen, Norway Icelandair, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Primera Air, Scandinavian Airlines
2 Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark Icelandair, WOW Air
3 United Kingdom London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow and London-Luton, United Kingdom easyJet, Icelandair, WOW Air
4 United States New York-JFK and Newark, United States Delta Air Lines, Icelandair
5 France Paris-Charles de Gaulle, France and Orly, France Icelandair, Transavia.com France
6 United States Boston, United States Icelandair
7 Sweden Stockholm-Arlanda, Sweden Icelandair
8 Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherland Icelandair
9 United States Seattle/Tacamo, United States Icelandair
10 Germany Frankfurt, Germany Icelandair

Ground transport

Transport between the airport and Reykjavik city is by road only. The distance is 50 km. A new dual carriageway road was opened in 2008. The buses are operated by Iceland Excursions' Airport Express and Reykjavik Excursions Kynnisferðir's Flybus services. They both have a timetable adapted to the arrival and departing flights' schedule. They go to and from the Reykjavik bus terminal, taking around 45 minutes. Both companies offer a stop at the domestic airport and also provide direct stops at major hotels and hostels in the Reykjavik area through their shuttle service on request. Taxis are also available outside the terminal.

Accidents and incidents

On 21 July 2013, a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner, prototype aircraft 97005, made a belly landing during a test flight. The cause of the belly landing is currently being investigated by the authorities.[14]

Controversy

The presence of foreign military forces in Iceland under the NATO sponsored Iceland–U.S. Defense Agreement of 1951 was a controversial issue in Iceland, which had no indigenous military forces. During the 1960s and 1970s, rallies were held to protest the U.S. military presence in Iceland (and in particular at Keflavík), and every year protesters walked the 50 km (31 mi) road from Reykjavík to Keflavík and chanted "Ísland úr NATO, herinn burt" (literally: Iceland out of NATO, the military away). The protests were not effective. One of the participants was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who later became the first female President of Iceland.

References

  1. ^ http://visir.is/enn-eitt-metid-slegid-i-fjolda-farthega-sem-fara-um-keflavikurflugvoll/article/2013131119463
  2. ^ a b "BIKF – Keflavík" (PDF). Icelandic Civil Aviation Administration.
  3. ^ "2012 Passenger Statistics". Kefairport.is. Isavia Limited. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  4. ^ "Cargo Statistics 2012". Kefairport.is. Isavia Limited. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRzmWzIE16g
  6. ^ "Hugmyndir um að reisa nýja flugstöð" (in Icelandic). ruv. Retrieved 13 February 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Hugmyndir um nýja flugbraut á Keflavíkurflugvelli" (in Icelandic). visir. Retrieved 13 February 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ http://wowair.com/en/wow-air-purchases-iceland-express
  9. ^ http://www.icelandair.ca/information/media/newslist/detail/item705838/icelandair_increases_edmonton_service/?utm_source=FBedmontonincrease&utm_medium=TWedmontonincrease&utm_campaign=TWedmontonincrease
  10. ^ a b c http://finance.yahoo.com/news/icelandair-announces-non-stop-anchorage-154500634.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CUIEzhQtWoAiTzQtDMD
  11. ^ a b http://www.icelandair.us/information/media/newslist/detail/item698698/icelandair_announces_growth_plans_for_2014_/
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ [2]
  14. ^ http://www.avherald.com/h?article=465ade78&opt=0