Keflavík International Airport
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| Keflavik International Airport Keflavíkurflugvöllur |
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| IATA: KEF – ICAO: BIKF | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Joint | ||
| Owner | Keflavik Airport Administration | ||
| Operator | Leifur Eiriksson Air Terminal Ltd. | ||
| Serves | Reykjavík | ||
| Location | Keflavík | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 52 m / 171 ft | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 02/20 | 3,054 | 10,020 | Asphalt |
| 11/29 | 3,065 | 10,057 | Asphalt |
| Statistics (2007) | |||
| Passengers | 2,182,232 [1] | ||
| Cargo | 61,500 t | ||
Keflavík International Airport (Icelandic: Keflavíkurflugvöllur) (IATA: KEF, ICAO: BIKF) is the largest airport in Iceland and the country’s main hub for international transportation. It is situated near the town of Keflavík, about 50 km (about 31 miles) from Reykjavík. The airport has two runways, one 3065 m × 60 m and one 3054 m × 60 m. The airport area is about 25 square kilometers.
The main carriers at Keflavík are Icelandair and Iceland Express, both of which make the airport their main hub. The airport is only an international airport, except for summer flights to Akureyri in connection with Icelandair’s flights; all other domestic flights are flown from Reykjavík Airport, which lies within a long walk of Reykjavík’s city centre. Keflavík International Airport is operated by Leifur Eiriksson Air Terminal Ltd., a government enterprise.
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[edit] History
[edit] Airport history
The airport was built by the United States Army during World War II. As early as December 1941 the U.S. Army Air Forces desired an airfield at Keflavik capable of operating heavy bombers in addition to a fighter strip. Funds were allocated in January 1942 and construction begun 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 strip, known as Meeks Field, was begun in July by military and civilian contractor crews, but the civilian contractor was relieved by the newly formed U.S. Navy construction battalions Seabees and opened on March 23, 1943.
During the war the airport complex only served military purposes, but soon after the war it became a popular refueling airport for planes crossing the Atlantic. After withdrawal in 1947, U.S. forces came back to Keflavík in 1951 and, due to its strategic location, continued using the airport until September 30, 2006, when the 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 ended up in the middle of the base. International travelers thus had to enter military check points to reach their flights, which gave the feeling that the US military controlled access to and from Iceland. This continued until 1987 when the civilian terminal was relocated. The former Agreed Military Area at Keflavík has been redesignated as Airport, Security and Development Area under the supervision of the Keflavík International Airport Authority, the Defence Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Keflavík Airport Development Corporation respectively.
The runways are long enough to support NASA's Space Shuttle and also the Airbus A380 (10,000 ft).
[edit] Leifur Eiríksson Air Terminal
Keflavík International Airport has one terminal called Leifur Eiríksson Air Terminal (Flugstöð Leifs Eiríkssonar or Leifsstöð in Icelandic), named for Leif Ericson. It was opened in 1987 and thereby separated the airport’s civil traffic from its military activities. 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 is one of few in the world to have duty-free stores in both departure and arrival lounges.
Although the population of Iceland is only about 300,000, there are scheduled flights to and from four locations in the United States (New York, Boston, Orlando, and Minneapolis), Halifax and Toronto in Canada, and 20 cities across Europe. The largest carriers at Keflavik are Icelandair and Iceland Express.
It should be noted that Keflavík Airport only serves international flights (except for flights to Akureyri in connection with Icelandair’s flights): domestic flights and flights to Greenland and the Faroe Islands are operated from the Reykjavík’s domestic airport. When changing between domestic and international flights, a 50 km bus transfer is usually needed, and at least three hours time between flights is recommended.
[edit] Airlines and destinations
- airberlin (Düsseldorf, Munich) [begins June 2008]
- Air Iceland (Akureyri, Nuuk)
- Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
- Edelweiss Air (Zurich)
- Futura International Airways (Gran Canaria, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife-South)
- Germanwings (Cologne/Bonn)
- Iceland Express (Alicante, Barcelona, Berlin-Schönefeld, Billund, Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Franfurt-Hahn, Friedrichshafen, Gothenburg-Landvetter, London-Stansted, Luxembourg, Oslo, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Stockholm-Arlanda, Warsaw)
- Icelandair (Amsterdam, Barcelona [seasonal], Bergen, Berlin-Schönefeld, Boston, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Glasgow-International, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Halifax, Helsinki, London-Heathrow, Madrid [seasonal], Manchester, Milan-Malpensa, Minneapolis/St Paul, New York-JFK, Orlando-Sanford, Oslo, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Stockholm-Arlanda, Toronto-Pearson [begins Spring 2008] [1])
- JetX Airlines (Montreal) [seasonal]
- Lufthansa (Hamburg)
- Swiss International Air Lines (Zurich)
- Scandinavian Airlines System (Stockholm-Arlanda, Oslo)
[edit] Charters
- Travel Service (Brno, Budapest, Karlovy Vary, Ostrava, Pardubice, Prague)
[edit] Cargo Airlines
- UPS
- operated by Bluebird Cargo (Cork, Cologne/Bonn)
[edit] Controversy
During the 1960s and 1970s, many rallies were held to protest the U.S. military presence in Iceland (and in particular at Keflavík) and every year hundreds, sometimes thousands, walked the 50 km road from Reykjavík to Keflavík and chanted "Ísland úr NATO, herinn burt" (literally: Iceland out of NATO, the military away). One of the better known participants was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who later became the first female president of Iceland.
