Førde Airport, Bringeland

Historie

Førde Airport, Bringeland is a regional airport located at Bringelandsåsen in the municipality of Gaular, about 16km south of the town of Førde in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. Owned and operated by the state-owned Avinor, the airport has a single 1019m runway numbered 07–25. It is served by Widerøe, which operates Dash 8-100 aircraft to the cities of Bergen, Florø and Oslo.Starting in 1970, the town of Førde was served by Førde Airport, Øyrane, located in an industrial site in town and with poor operational conditions. Bringeland was opened in 1986 and the old airport was closed. Bringeland originally consisted of a 859m runway, but that was lengthened in 2010. Since 1988, the helicopter operator Airlift has also been based at the airport. The airport was originally municipal, but nationalized in 1996. Bringeland served 82,356 passengers in 2011.HistoryØyraneThe first plans for an airport serving the Sunnfjord region was in the town of Florø; construction started in 1956, but was halted. A government commission recommended in 1964 that a primary airport be built in Florø serve the entire county. These plans were changed in 1965, following Håkon Kyllingmark being appointed Ministry of Transport and Communications (Norway). He instead insisted on a network of short take-off and landing airports for smaller communities. Førde Airport, Øyrane was built with such specifications, but was located in the middle of the industrial area Øyrane, just outside the town center. From 1971 it became part of the regional aviation network in Western Norway.