Finally: The New Nuuk Airport Opens In Greenland
Intro
Greenland has long had a special place in my heart. When I was a young boy, I had the opportunity to take a trip of a lifetime to Illulisat and even further north to film time capsules of glaciers melting, which blew my mind. Back then, we flew the A330 into the only airport in Greenland that could handle it, Kangerlussuaq Airport.
Well, as of today, the airline has switched its main hub to its capital since the runway has been extended to allow larger planes to land!
The Details
As of today, the new airport in Nuuk is now open! Over the past while, Greenland (and my guess is Denmark) has worked hard to extend the runway from the previous 3000 feet to just a little over 6000 feet. With this expansion, this has opened up a world of possibilities for airlines looking to fly to Greenland, even United has announced service there!
With this new airport being open, this also means that the sole A330-800neo by Air Greenland will now fly from Nuuk-Copenhagen.
I took the flight a while ago when it wasn't a Neo, and I highly recommend it!
My Thoughts
In some ways, this is an extremely exciting development for Greenland. It now makes flying to Greenland a lot easier for passengers, shortening flying time (since Kangerlussuaq was mainly a transit airport). On the other hand, what happens to all of the businesses in Kangerlussuaq? Most importantly, is there a chance that we could see tourism become too much for Greenland?
At the moment, Greenland is a very special place due to the lack of tourism infrastructure. If we begin to see 5-star hotels popping up all over Greenland, will it share the same value? There is a special something that goes through your mind when somewhere is more complicated to get to, but that is just my two cents.
Final Thoughts
Greenland has just opened its largest airport and newest airport in the country: Nuuk. Expanding the runway from 3000 feet to 6000 feet and opening a new terminal is perfect for the expansion of the airlines coming soon. Air Greenland has swapped their daily service from Copenhagen from Kangerlussuaq to Nuuk. UA will start 2x weekly flights soon, and SAS will add 3x weekly flights. Surely, this will be a good monetary move for the country. However, will it be good to keep this place remote? Only time shall tell.
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