Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Fagernes Airport, Leirin is a general aviation airfield in the Valdres region of Innlandet, Norway, roughly 190 kilometres north-west of Oslo. Built to a surprisingly long specification for a regional field, it once hosted jet charter traffic to nearby ski resorts before commercial services ended, leaving it today as a field for general and light aviation.
Fagernes Airport, Leirin serves the town of Fagernes and the surrounding valleys of Valdres, Hallingdal and Gudbrandsdal in Innlandet county, Norway. Originally built as a regional airport for scheduled and charter passenger flights, it is now classified as a non-public general aviation field, which makes it an interesting stop for a visiting sim pilot: a substantial hard-surfaced runway, built to accommodate jet charter traffic, now serves lighter aircraft in a dramatic mountain-valley setting.
The airport lies at Fagernes in Nord-Aurdal Municipality, Innlandet county, in the Valdres valley of southern Norway, about 190 kilometres from Oslo. No specific airspace classification, FIR boundary detail or neighbouring controlled airspace is given in the available sources.
Fagernes has a single physical runway orientated 15/33, surfaced in hard asphalt and lit. The runway is recorded at 6018 ft when used as runway 15 and 6487 ft when used as runway 33.
An Aerodrome Flight Information Service (AFIS) operates on 119.925 MHz. No instrument landing system is available at the field, and no other navaids or published instrument approaches are noted in the available sources.
Plans for an airport at Fagernes were first put forward in 1975 and approved by the Norwegian Parliament in 1984 alongside three other regional airports, at Rørvik, Mosjøen and Førde Airport, Bringeland. Construction began in 1985, but the plan was revised in 1986 when local authorities opted for a longer runway to allow charter flights, mirroring a similar extension under way at the nearby Geilo Airport, Dagali. The airport opened on 31 October 1987, initially owned by Valdres Lufthavn A/S, a private company backed by six local municipalities, with the state covering 60 percent of the original NOK 29.3 million cost for what had been planned as an 800-metre runway. The longer runway pushed costs up substantially, financed through loans, municipal grants and an investment from Dansk Folkeferie; by 1988 total building costs had risen from an estimated NOK 88 million to NOK 131 million, leaving the municipalities paying NOK 3.5 million annually in interest alone. The opening of the airport coincided with the closure of the Norwegian State Railways' Valdres Line in 1989. Norsk Air launched the first scheduled route, to Oslo Airport, Fornebu, and Bergen Airport, Flesland, on 4 November 1987 using Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia aircraft, but the route proved unprofitable and was terminated on 1 June 1988 after losses of NOK 5 million; passenger numbers of around 4,500 a year compared poorly with the 120,000 carried annually by the Valdresekspressen coach service over the same route. The airport company was forced into refinancing in 1990, with much of its debt transferred to the municipalities and county, though by 1991 passenger numbers had risen above 20,000, three-quarters of them charter traffic. Coast Air introduced state-subsidised scheduled services in 1990, continuing until Teddy Air won the contract in 1996. On 1 January 1996 Fagernes Airport was nationalised along with 25 other regional airports and brought under the Norwegian Airport Authority, later Avinor. Scheduled operations subsequently passed through a succession of carriers: Guard Air from 2000 until its bankruptcy in 2001, a brief interim take-over by Widerøe, then Arctic Air, followed by Coast Air again from 2003 until its own bankruptcy in 2008, then Air Norway for a year, and DOT LT from 2009. The closure of Geilo Airport, Dagali in 2003 brought increased charter traffic to Fagernes.
Fagernes is now classified as a non-public general aviation airport, and pilots planning to fly there should expect that prior permission is required. The runway remains lit and available, having originally been built to a specification capable of handling aircraft up to Airbus A321 and Boeing 757 size for charter operations, though current use is understood to be general aviation rather than scheduled or charter passenger services.
