Leknes Airport

Airport in Vestvågøy, Norway

LKN

Runways

Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	m	ft	Surface
02/20	1,070	3,511	Asphalt

Statistics (2014)

Passengers	101,757
Aircraft movements	5,839
Cargo (tonnes)	12

Source:^[1]^[2]

Leknes Airport (Norwegian: Leknes lufthavn; IATA: LKN, ICAO: ENLK) is a regional airport serving the town of Leknes and the surrounding areas in the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. The airport is located just outside Leknes in Vestvågøy municipality. The European route E10 highway passes along the east side of the airport. In 2014, Leknes Airport had 101,757 passengers. It is operated by Avinor.

Service

The airport is served by Widerøe with Dash 8 aircraft connecting the community to Bodø and other communities in Nordland. The routes are operated on public service obligation with the Norwegian Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Flights to Oslo via Bodø take about 3 hours with connecting routes Widerøe/Scandinavian Airlines.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Widerøe	Bodø, Oslo,^[3] Røst, Stokmarknes,^[4] Svolvær,^[5] Tromsø^[4]^{[better source needed]}

Statistics

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Annual passenger traffic at LKN airport. See Wikidata query.

Ground transportation

The airport is located approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the town center. There are no buses, but taxis are available.

Future

Avinor is planning building a new primary airport to serve Lofoten and possibly also Vesterålen. The region wants to be more attractive on the conference market which would create more job opportunities outside the tourist season, and there is a need to adapt airports to modern aircraft types.

Two locations have been put forward, Gimsøya (68°19′10″N 14°9′30″E / 68.31944°N 14.15833°E / 68.31944; 14.15833) and Hadselsanden (68°25′40″N 14°37′30″E / 68.42778°N 14.62500°E / 68.42778; 14.62500). The former could replace Leknes Airport and Svolvær Airport, the latter could also replace Stokmarknes Airport. As both alternatives imply direct services to Oslo, the leakage to Evenes would be reduced.^[6] However weather recordings has shown that Gimsøy, located at the big ocean, is too windy and foggy for an airport.^[7]

Therefore, the main option now is to extend the runway and terminal of Leknes airport, considering that Svolvær airport has no room for runway extension.^[8]^[9] No such project is part of the Norwegian National Transport Plan for 2022–2033.

A large road project, which will reduce the drive time between Svolvær and Evenes by 35 minutes, will be built 2023-2028.^[10] This might make Harstad-Evenes Airport airport more attractive than Leknes for travel between Oslo and Svolvær, if Leknes is not extended to full length for jet aircraft.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leknes Airport.

^ "Månedsrapport". Avinor. 2015. Archived from the original (XLS) on 17 February 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
^ "Airport information for ENLK" (PDF). Avinor. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
^ Tidenes storsatsning wideroe.no ^{[dead link]}
^ ^a ^b Liu, Jim (3 February 2017). "Widerøe adds new sectors in S17". Routes online. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
^ wideroe.no
^ "Nasjonal transportplan 2014–2023: Framtidsrettet utvikling av lufthavnstrukturen" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Avinor. 15 February 2012. pp. 46–48. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
^ Gimsøya ikke tilfredsstillende som flyplasslokasjon i Lofoten (Lofotposten 23. November 2016)
^ Avinor om flyplass i Lofoten: - Dette er den beste plasseringen for en forlengelse (in Norwegian) Lofotposten 31 August 2017
^ "Vil bruke 6,4 milliarder på ny flyplass og ny vei i Lofoten" [Want to spend 6.4 billion on new airport and new road in Lofoten]. NRK. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
^ "E10/rv. 85 Tjeldsund–Gullesfjordbotn–Langvassbukt - (OPS Hålogalandsvegen)". Statens vegvesen. 3 October 2023. Retrieved 21 December 2023.