Kristiansand Airport (; ) is an international airport serving Kristiansand Municipality in Agder county, Norway. The airport is located in the district of Tveit in the Oddernes borough, about by road and by air from the center of town of Kristiansand. Operated by the state-owned Avinor, it is the sole airport in Southern Norway with scheduled flights. It has a runway aligned 03/21 and served 1,061,130 passengers in 2018. Scheduled flights are provided by Scandinavian Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Widerøe, KLM Cityhopper and Wizz Air. The Royal Norwegian Air Force has a training center at the airport.
It opened on 1 June 1939, as the joint second airport in the country. During the Second World War it was occupied and expanded by the Luftwaffe. Kristiansand's southerly location caused the airport to receive several international routes during the early years, as well as domestic services. Braathens SAFE served domestic services from 1955 to its demise in 2004. KLM flew until 1971, after which Dan-Air opened routes to the United Kingdom. The terminal received major extensions in 1955, 1979, 1994 and 2015. New control towers were built in 1966 and 2013. It was the base for Sørfly from 1946 to 1962, for Agderfly from 1969 to 2004, and for FlyNonstop in 2013.
History
Construction The first airport in Kristiansand was a water aerodrome situated in the city center. It was built by the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service in 1918.Hafsten & Arheim: 38 A government commission recommended on 21 October 1920 that Kristiansand receive a water airport as part of a nationwide investment program. However, nothing came of the plans for more than a decade.Olsen-Hagen & Gulstad: 9 Moving of the military water aerodrome was proposed several times, although this was never carried out before the construction of Kjevik.Hafsten & Arheim: 39
Locally, the initiative for an airport in Kristiansand was launched by Mayor Andreas Kjær in 1933. The city council sent a formal application to the government in August 1934, asking for an airport.Bakken: 21 That summer Widerøe commenced flights to Kristiansand along a coastal route from Oslo to Haugesund.Bakken: 22 Norwegian Air Lines (DNL) commenced a coastal seaplane route along the southern coast from Oslo to Bergen via Kristiansand on 9 June 1935. This service used an aerodrome at Kongsgårdbukta.Bakken: 13
The government stated in 1935 that it planned on building a main airport for Agder – Kristiansand, Mandal and Arendal were all proposed as suitable hosts. The government concluded that Kristiansand was the most suitable, based on traffic, military and financial considerations. Several locations were considered. Kongsgårdbakken was selected, costing 2 million Norwegian krone (NOK) less than Kjevik.Olsen-Hagen & Gulstad: 11 The municipality and the state formalized construction in April 1936, where the former would provide the land and the construction costs of NOK 2.4 million would be split. Construction commenced soon afterwards.Bakken: 23
Meanwhile, a group started looking at Kjevik as a suitable site, led by aviator Bernt Balchen, industrialist Rolf Petersen and Lawyer Hartmann.Bakken: 24 They presented detailed plans and agreed prices for purchase of lands. Based on this Kristiansand Municipal Council accepted on 5 August 1936 to reconsider Kjevik. Kjevik was passed in the council on 30 September 1937 with 34 against 26 votes.Bakken: 25 Construction commenced in November and was contracted to Høyer-Ellefsen. The same year the Norwegian Army Air Service used the fields at Kjevik for training.
The airport originally consisted of a concrete runway connected to the apron with a wide taxiway. A small, wooden terminal building was built of a shed and a nearby residential house was used as a restaurant. Seaplanes were served with a floating dock and a slipway. Kjevik opened on 1 June 1939, the same day as Oslo Airport, Fornebu. The first aircraft to land was a Douglas DC-2 of KLM. They started an international route from Oslo via Kristiansand to Amsterdam, while Danish Air Lines operated to Copenhagen. DNL opened a domestic seaplane route from Oslo via Kristiansand to Stavanger Airport, Sola.Olsen-Hagen & Gulstad: 12
Second World War Kjevik was captured by the Luftwaffe during the German invasion on the 9th of April, 1940. The first aircraft landed at Kjevik as an emergency landing on the first day of the invasion.Bakken: 15 Later it was used by Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft,Bakken: 16 flying troops in. From the 11th of April, a squadron of Messerschmitt Bf 109s was stationed at Kjevik.Hafsten: 79
Luftwaffe immediately started upgrading the aerodrome. They began by removing a hill at the east end of the runway, followed by an extension of the runway. Tveit was transformed with military structures built throughout the village. In the east a minefield was laid and several fuel tanks were built around the airfield. Two large hangars were built, along with a large number of sheds. In the course of the war the runway was extended to . The German military planned a large expansion of the airport from 1945, which would have included new aprons and would have obliterated the village. These plans were halted by the end of the war.
Early operation
Kjevik was taken over by the Royal Air Force in May 1945. They started the work of mine sweeping and disarming the armaments and general clean-up of the aerodrome. It was later transferred to civilian use.Bakken: 17 The Air Force's Aircraft-Technical School and the Weapon-Technical School moved to Kjevik in February 1946. The latter moved to Lista Air Station two years later.Bakken: 10
The upgraded facilities resulted in Kristiansand Municipality wanting to rid itself of the responsibility and cost of running the airport. The city council passed a resolution of 9 December 1946 offering the airport free of charge to the state.Olsen-Hagen & Gulstad: 13 This was approved by Parliament on 20 June 1947. The same year the aviation club Kjevik Flyklubb was established.Bakken: 59
On 6 March 1946 KLM resumed its route, flying from Oslo via Kristiansand to Amsterdam using a Douglas DC-3. By 1950 it was flown three times a week, and continued onwards to Brussels.Bakken: 47 DNL, through the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) cooperation started an international route on 2 October 1946 from Oslo via Kristiansand, Amsterdam and Brussels to Paris. Four days later a domestic Ju 52 seaplane route started from Kristiansand to Stavanger, Haugesund and Bergen. Danish Air Lines introduced a route from Kjevik to Aalborg and Copenhagen in 1947.Bakken: 50
DNL started a land plane route from Kristiansand to Stavanger in 1947, but withdrew two years later, using a Douglas DC-3. From 1949 KLM took over flights from Oslo to Kristiansand. Braathens SAFE was awarded the route in 1950, along with an extension to Copenhagen, but abandoned it the following year.Bakken: 52 The terminal building was expanded in 1953, receiving a new waiting room and a new cafeteria.Olsen-Hagen & Gulstad: 14
Sørfly—the first airline based in Agder—was established in 1946. It operated out of Kjevik, originally with the Auster Autocrats. They performed various general aviation tasks, including sight-seeing, charter flights for hunters, especially to Setesdal and aerial photography.Bakken: 54 A Republic Seabee and a Miles Gemini were delivered in 1947 and 1948. The airline launched a scheduled route from Stavanger and Kristiansand via Ålborg to Gothenburg.Bakken: 55 The airline's hangar at Kjevik collapsed in 1954 and the Seabee sold in 1956. From then the airline had less and less activity and liquidated in 1962.Bakken: 56
Braathens resumed traffic on 6 June 1955 when it opened a route from Oslo via Tønsberg, Kristiansand and Farsund to Stavanger, with a daily round trip on a de Havilland Heron. These were replaced with the larger Fokker F27 Friendship in 1959. The route served 2,593 passengers the first year, increasing to 17,900 in 1960. Braathens opened a route from Kristiansand to Ålborg in 1960, although this was taken over by SAS the following year. That year the airport had 54,306 passengers.Olsen-Hagen & Gulstad: 24
KLM introduced the Vickers Viscount on the Kjevik route in 1957 and three years later started using the Lockheed L-188 Electra.Bakken: 48 The Weapon Technical School moved back to Kjevik in 1963. During the late 1950s and 1960s SAS switched its Kristiansand services first to the Saab Scandia and then the Convair CV-440 Metropolitan.Bakken: 51 Dan-Air introduced summer services to Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1963, expanded to an all-year service from 1972.Bakken: 53
New aircraft resulted in the need for a longer runway. The city and the state made an agreement whereby the former would pay for the land while the latter would pay for the construction. The runway was extended to in 1966. On 2 November a new, tall control tower opened. The airport had 143,585 passengers in 1965.
Agderfly was established at Kjevik in 1969. The company operated a wide range of aircraft, focusing until the 1980s exclusively as a flying school.Bakken: 57 KLM introduced the Douglas DC-9 on the Amsterdam route from 1966. However, the stopped serving Kristiansand from November 1971, when the stop was moved to Gothenburg. Braathens introduced the Fokker F28 Fellowship from 1969 and the Boeing 737-200 from 1975.
The airport served 203,875 passengers in 1970, which increased to 295,578 five years later. A parachute club, Kjevik Fallskjermklubb, was founded in 1974.Bakken: 60 Dan-Air introduced a service to London in 1976. The Air Force's Communication- and Radar School moved to Kjevik in 1977. SAS used the DC-9 for its international route for a period during the 1970s, but as these proved too large later switched to the smaller F27.
New terminal
Kristiansand was one of six test airports which received a British doppler microwave landing system in 1977. In the late 1970s the terminal was too small, resulting in the airport opening a new terminal on 22 March 1979, costing NOK 19 million. The terminal from the war had been used for domestic services and was converted to cargo terminal. The international terminal was converted to a terminal for the Air Force. Kjevik served 400,549 passengers in 1980, increasing to 477,549 five years later.
Kristiansand-based Agderfly introduced services to Göteborg Landvetter Airport on 26 September 1989, followed by a Billund Airport route on 2 October. Two years later they received permission to fly to Bremen Airport, but ultimately shut down on 21 November 1991. The flight school continued to operate. SAS was reorganized in 1990 and the Copenhagen routes were taken over by SAS Commuter's Eurolink service with new Fokker 50 aircraft.Hall: 176–177 Norsk Air introduced a service from Sandefjord Airport, Torp via Kristiansand to London Stansted Airport on 28 October 1991. The route had insufficient traffic and was terminated the following year.Tjomsland: 177–181 The airport served 578,373 passengers in 1990, which increased to 745,061 passengers five years later.