Ørsta/Volda Airport, Hovden

Historie

Ørsta–Volda Airport, Hovden is a regional airport situated at Hovdebygda in Ørsta, Norway, midway between the towns of Ørsta and Volda. The airport features a 1070m asphalt runway aligned 06/24. Services are provided by Widerøe using their de Havilland Canada Dash 8 as a public service obligation. Owned and operated by the state-owned Avinor, the airport handled 121,021 passengers in 2014.Hoved opened on 1 July 1971 as a municipal airport having cost 5.9 million Norwegian krone (NOK). Until 1993 Widerøe served it using the de Havilland Canada Twin Otter as a feeder service to Ålesund Airport, Vigra. The de Havilland Canada Dash 7 was used from 1985 to 1987. During the early years the airport had very poor regularity and was proposed closed. Terminal upgrades were carried out in 1988 and the runway extended in the early 2000s. Since the 2008 opening of the Eiksund Tunnel and the 2012 opening of the Kviv Tunnel, Hovden has significantly increased its catchment area and now covers a population of 60,000 in southern Sunnmøre and Nordfjord. This had led to a tripling of ridership.