Bodo airport

Historie

Bodø Airport is a civil airport in Bodø, Norway. Located just south of the city centre, on the westernmost tip of the Bodø-peninsula, it shares facilities with the military air force base Bodø Main Air Station. The airport has a single concrete, 2,794by runway which runs in a roughly east-west direction. In addition to jet operations to major domestic destinations, the airport serves as a hub for regional airline flights to Helgeland, Lofoten and Vesterålen.HistoryPostal flights to Bodø started in 1921, and before 1940 Bodø was served with sea planes from Widerøe.The first runway at Bodø Airport was built during World War II by British troops, after Germany had invaded Norway. On 26 May 1940 three Royal Air Force Gloster Gladiators, led by Flight Lieutenant Caesar Hull, landed and made the first airborne defence for the city. The area was swampland, and the first makeshift runway consisted of wooden planks floating on the water. Soon the German Luftwaffe seized control over the airport, and held it for the duration of the war, among other things upgrading the runway to concrete.Not much was done with the airport until after the Korean War started in 1950. The West were afraid of a Soviet attack on Western Europe, so a new military base was constructed at a new location south-west of the old one. Originally planned to be finished in 1951, the new airport did not become fully operational until 1956, though the civilian terminal opened in 1952. From then on fighter jets have been stationed at Bodø. In 1988, NATO injected vast amounts of money to enable the airfield to handle large air forces in the event of an emergency.