Finnmark County in the high north of Norway has 11 airports serving a population of only 75,000. BarentsObserver takes you to the skies.
It is Monday morning and it could have been like any other bus ride to work as I get into the seat. An acquaintance asks if the seat next to me is free. I confirm and we start chatting about life and work for the 10 minute journey.
This is, however, not a bus ride. We are onboard Widerøe’s flight 944 from Kirkenes to Tromsø. En route, the aircraft makes a short stopover in Vadsø, a town across the fjord from Kirkenes where my friend works. She is flying because driving her car around the fjord would take two and a half hours. New passengers enter and all 39 seats in the small plane are occupied as Captain Gunnar Farup prepares for take-off after the few minutes stopover.
Captain Farup and First Officer Ole Kristian Westberg started early morning at ten past five from Tromsø, the hub for Widerøe’s flights in the northernmost part of Norway. The airline is serving nearly all airports in Norway. In Finnmark, there are no less than 11 airports. No other so sparsely-populated areas in Europe have more airports per capita.
In Finnmark, there are no less than 11 airports. No other so sparsely-populated areas in Europe have more airports per capita.
Widerøe operates a fleet of 42 Bombardier Dash-8 aircraft. Due to its flights with multiple take-offs and landings Widerøe outranks several much larger airlines in number of departures per day. In February of this year, it ranked 15th among all airlines operating in Europe for the number of weekly flights. During an average day, the airliner makes 450 take-offs and landings.
Captain Gunnar Farup and First Officer Ole Kristian Westberg in the cockpit of Widerøe’s Dash-8 aircraft. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
If we had booked tickets with the next scheduled flight from Kirkenes to Tromsø departing a few hours later, Widerøe flight 961, the tour would include five stopovers in remote communities along the coast. Locals, naming it “the milk-route” try to avoid that flight. If you have been on board in stormy weather you will understand why.
En route to Tromsø this morning, the weather is excellent. The fresh breeze doesn’t disturb our take-off from Vadsø more than just reminding you of the joy of flying. We are climbing up the skies over the Varanger fjord after a 180 degrees turn from the short airstrip. Today is partly cloudy, but still a spectacular view across the Finnmark Plateau.
Fifty minutes on, First Officer Westberg announces we have started our approach to Tromsø just as we are flying over the impressive Lyngen Alps. A spectacular view of the mountain range, with glaciers and deep valleys, from the highest peak 1,833 metres down to the deep and clear water fjords is worth the flight itself. Especially when the skies are blue and the Captain can fly the propeller in between the mountains. Sometimes with only a few hundred metres in distance from the snowy rocks.
Over the Lyngen Alps, we are flying with only a few hundred metres in distance from the snowy rocks.
“After this, we will make a return flight to Lakselv and Alta,” cabin attendant Cecilie Torset tells as she prepares the cabin for new passengers after the travellers from Kirkenes and Vadsø had disembarked. Torset knows many of the passengers – and the passengers know her. Northern Norway is long in distances, but the people are famous for their openness and fellow feeling.
Cabin attendant Cecilie Torset prepares for new passengers. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
In Tromsø, we are connecting to Hammerfest after a short break for an espresso inside the terminal building. The smallest of the Dash-8s, the one with only 39 seats flying out of Kirkenes in the morning, don’t have an on-board coffee machine.
As our plane refuels, larger Boeing-737s from airliners like Norwegian and SAS are landing and taking to the skies. Widerøe brings passengers to primary airports which provide onwards service with jet aircrafts. Looking out of the window, five Widerøe planes are lined up, ready to bring northbound passengers to Finnmark and southbound passengers towards the different airports in the Lofoten Islands.
Hammerfest is one of the busiest regional airports in Norway. The town, branding itself as the northernmost in the world, has experienced a real boom due to its key position in the on-going Arctic offshore oil- and gas activity. There are no less than ten daily Widerøe flights from Tromsø to Hammerfest.
While on-board, the passengers are discussing the ups and downs of oil price. No one seems to care much as we start circling inside the foggy clouds around Hammerfest airports. Two passenger planes and one ambulance plane are in queue for landing before us. After a few minutes the Captain is on the microphone informing that the fog is way to thick for landing, and since we don’t have fuel for more circling he has set course for Lakselv, the nearest airport without fog.
Where else in the world would you then look around in the cabin seeing nobody being disappointed, or angry, or worried about their time-schedule? Welcome to Finnmark; Widerøe’s passengers are likely the most patient customers any airliner can dream of. “The weather is nothing we can do anything about,” is likely the most repeated phrase among locals in this part of Norway. Stranded passengers due to fog, storms or heavy snow are routine procedure for Widerøe’s staff.
Widerøe’s passengers are likely the most patient customers any airliner can dream of.
Cabin attendant Renate Karlsen and First Officer Eirik Mathias Rosøy stand smiling at the exit door as we disembark. Renate offers the small, dark chocolates the air company is famous for handing out to passengers; not only when the flight is in trouble, but especially then.
The bus ride from Lakselv takes two and a half hours. Parking the bus downtown Hammerfest, the fog is of course long gone.
For Widerøe, Hammerfest airport is a star example of growth in traffic these recent years. More than 145,000 passengers in 2014 made it the third-busiest regional airport in Norway. Among the passengers you find engineers on their way to the plant producing liquid natural gas for the world market, as well as someone flying in for a hospital appointment with a ticket paid by Norway’s world-famous welfare society.
Hammerfest has one of the two hospitals in Finnmark, a county even larger than Denmark in size. The other hospital is in Kirkenes, seven hours, a 480 kilometres drive to the east.
Widerøe had its best year ever in 2014, carrying more than 2.8 million passengers, with a turnover of NOK 2.9 billion (€341 million). Without the subsidised routes, the airliner could never offer flights to most of Norway’s smaller airports. A deal between Widerøe and the Norwegian Ministry of Transport is a must for the smallest communities, like most of the 11 local airports in Finnmark.
Take the fishing village of Berlevåg on the coast to the Barents Sea as an example. The airport had 5,968 passengers last year. Widerøe has three flights a day to Berlevåg, making an average of five or six travellers per flight. Even few passengers have its advantage. No crowds in check-in or security control, - actually most passengers turns up at the airport 10 minutes before departure.
Berlevåg is not lonely on the list of local airports with few travellers. Hasvik (7,625), Honningsvåg (13,261) and Vardø (7,625) are other examples in Finnmark where each passenger must be sponsored with thousands of Norwegian kroner every time they are on travel. A fully manned airport, with everyone in the security check, control tower, check-in staff, fire brigade and ground handling costs money. Lots of money.
Loading and unloading the aircraft takes only a few minutes at Lakselv airport. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
Avinor, the state company operating the airports, is now looking to copy a system from Sweden on how to remotely operate control towers. Airports in both Umeå and Örnsköldsvik have such distance controlled towers. In Norway, Avinor suggests personnel located at a centre in Bodø could look at camera connected screens from local airports further north assisting the crew in cockpit on landings and take-offs. Any attempt by national aviation authorities to raise questions about the existence of the many local airports in Norway are quickly met by anti-centralization voices from local politician. The network of small airports is key infrastructure for the country’s rural settlement policy. Even Vardø, Finnmark’s northeasternmost town with 2,100 inhabitants, has its own airport although it takes just an hour to drive to the airport in the neighbouring town of Vadsø. One hour is the same time as people downtown Oslo use driving to Gardermoen, the capital’s main airport.
My return flights from Hammerfest to Kirkenes didn’t differ much from my inbound flights two days before. Take-off to blue skies after checking in at the overcrowded terminal (Hammerfest is lobbying for a new expanded airport). After a short ground stop in Tromsø, the connecting flight towards Kirkenes is ready for boarding. This is the 50-seater version of the green and white painted Dash-8 propeller, the one with coffee machine on-board.
The skies are still blue as we climb to 12,000 feet and can see Alta airport down on the left side. Shortly after, the captain is on the microphone. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are sorry to inform that the current snow-storm in Kirkenes makes it impossible to land. We will instead take you to Lakselv, where our people at the ground service will arrange for you a bus to Kirkenes.”
Same old story, bus instead of plane because of bad weather.
Same old story, bus instead of plane because of bad weather. From Lakselv, the shortest drive to Kirkenes goes via the Sami village of Karasjok and across Finland’s north easternmost corner, making the tour international. Four hours later, it is past midnight before I am home.
Lesson learned? Flying in Finnmark brings together all joys of travel, as long as you are prepared for surprises and don’t have a tight schedule.
Boarding one of Widerøe's aircraft at Tromsø airport.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
The tank lorry giving fuel to the aircraft is painted in military colors due to the Cold War history of Banak airport in Lakselv.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Lakselv Banak is one of 11 airports in Finnmark county where Widerøe operates daily flights.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Rainbow over the control tower at Tromsø airport, the hub for Widerøe's northernmost flights in Norway.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Small airport with short baggage belt. This one in Hammerfest.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Flying a propeller plane over the skies of Finnmark gives you the real feeling and joy of flying.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Geir Seljeseth (left) is regulary flying with Widerøe. Today, he is one the flight for an oil conferance in Hammerfest.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Captain Gunnar Farup in the cockpit is based in Tromsø and knows in detail all airports in northern Norway.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
The window on board Widerøe's northbound flights from Tromsø offers some of the most breathtaking view you can imagine.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
The terminal building at Hammerfest airport is way too small for the growing number of passengers, according to the locals.