Longyearbyen Svalbard
Airport (IATA : LYR, ICAO : ENSB) or Svalbard Lufthavn Longyear is
situated approximatively 5 km northwest of Longyearbyen. This airport
is known to be the world's northernmost place reached by regularly
scheduled flights.
The runway is built in a east-west direction with 2300 meters long
and 45 meters wide. As the runway is built on ground with permafrost,
the runway experienced problems from the start in 1975.
To provide an approach and take off free of obstacle, preference for
landing is given to runway 10 and for departure to runway 28. Instrument
Landing System exist for both runways and are used daily.
Longyearbyen Svalbard Airport has daily scheduled jet service to Tromso
and Oslo by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and Braathens.
This airport is vital for most activities on Svalbard, with scheduled
daily flights to Europe and to local destinations Svea-Gruva and Ny-Alesund
on Spitzbergen. The flight from Oslo is 3 hours long and the flight
from Tromsø is 1 hour and 30 minutes long.
The airport has handled aircrafts like Mc Donnel-Douglas DC10, Lockheed
L1011 and Airbus A300.
This airport is also unique as it supports the coastal radio and weather
information services for the Svalbard archipelago.
Before the construction of the airport, the entire island was cut
off from the rest of the world, with the exception of radio communication,
between November and May. During World War II the German invasion
forces in Norway had constructed a primitive air strip at Adventdalen,
near Longyearbyen.
Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 was a chartered flight from the
Russian company Vnukovo Airlines which on August 29, 1996 crashed
14 km away from Longyearbyen airport, into the Operafjellet
mountain at an altitude of 907 m, killing all 141 people on
board.
The flight was en route to Longyearbyen with Russian and Ukrainian
coal mine workers and their families aboard.
The disaster had a profound impact of the small Russian mining
communities Barentsburg and Pyramiden in Svalbard and may have
hastened the abandonment of the Pyramiden settlement.
SVALBARD
AIRPORT
