Sandefjord Airport, Torp

Historie

Sandefjord Airport, Torp is an international airport located 4NM northeast of Sandefjord, Norway and 110km south of Oslo. The airport features a 2989m runway aligned 18/36. Torp partially serves as a regional airport for Vestfold and in part as a low-cost airport for Eastern Norway and the capital of Oslo. Widerøe have a base at Torp, serving both domestic and international destinations. It also sees scheduled flights by Norwegian Air Shuttle, Ryanair, Wizzair and KLM Cityhopper. The airport served 1,851,181 passengers in 2013.The airport was built largely with NATO funding as one of several bases to be used by the United States Air Force in case of war. Construction started in 1953 and the airport was opened on 2 July 1956. By then the military interest in the airport had dwindled. Civilian flights commenced in 1958 and in 1960 a municipal airport company was established to run a civilian sector. Vestfoldfly started operations the following year, and through a series of name changes and acquisitions has become the basis for Widerøe's operations at Torp. International services commenced in 1985 and Mediterranean charter services in 1992. The airport went through an expansion in the 1960s and in 1997 became a destination for Ryanair, who marketed it as an airport serving Oslo.