Skien Airport, Geiteryggen (; ) is a regional airport located at Geiteryggen, southwest of the center of the town of Skien in Skien Municipality, Norway. Owned by Skien Municipality, it was last served by Widerøe with daily flights to Bergen. The runway is and numbered 01–19. The airport had 33,080 passengers in 2014 and has Grenland and the southern part of Telemark county as its catchment area.
The airport was built with a gravel runway in 1952. Fjellfly was the first airline based at the airport, which from 1963 to 1972 flew scheduled services to Oslo. An extension of the runway to was carried out in 1970s. Norving had a base at Geiteryggen from 1976, which was taken over by Norsk Air in 1988. A major upgrade, including expanding the runway to the current length and building the current terminal, took place in the mid-1980s. Norsk Air withdrew in 1993, resulting in several airlines flying from the airport; Coast Aero Center, Teddy Air, Coast Air, Air Stord and Sun Air of Scandinavia all operated various services during the late 1980s and 1990s. The airport closed in 2002, but was reopened in 2004 when Vildanden was established. It gradually introduced four domestic and international services before folding in 2011.
History
Establishment The first aircraft to visit Skien was an air show held by Pierre Chanteloup at Gråtenmoen in Solum Municipality (just west of the town of Skien) in 1914.Olsen: 24 Other aviators used Gråtenmoen for flights from 1918.Olsen: 28 The first plans for a permanent airport in Grenland was proposed by Norsk Hydro in 1928, during the planning of their industrial facility at Herøya. At a meeting in on 12 January 1934, hosted by Skien Chamber of Commerce, Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, chief aviator in the newly established Norwegian Air Lines, recommended that an airport be built in Skien.Olsen: 44 The lecture spurred municipal and commercial interest in an airport, and within days there were carried out investigations of possible sites, notably Gråtenmoen, Vallermyrene and Geiteryggen.Olsen: 45
The municipal lot at Gråtenmoen was selected by the appointed municipal airport committee. Engineer Grøndahl designed a proposal for the airport, which included three runways: a long main runway, and two crosswind runways. The plans were completed in January 1935 and in 1936 the airport committee held meetings with among others Minister of Labor Ole Monsen Mjelde. By 1936 the Aviation Council was brought into the discussions, and they recommended that the airport be located at Skogplassene. This was opposed by local politicians, who instead proposed Geiteryggen. Their main concerns were that Geiteryggen would be cheaper to purchase and would creating more work. However, the initial proposals were rejected by the minister because they were not accurate enough. The final selection of Geiteryggen was taken at a public meeting on 30 November 1936, which included representatives from Parliament.Olsen: 46
World War II terminated plans for a civilian airport. The chamber of commerce resumed work on the airport plans in 1946 and initiated contact with the airlines. At the same time the municipal airport committee was re-established and continued working with the plans to build at Geiteryggen, where a lot was provided free of charge for the airport. The aviation club Grenland Flyklubb was established in May 1946 and bought a Piper J-3 Cub. It used fields at Vallermyrene as an airfield during summer, the iced Gunnekleivfjorden and Børsesjø during winter, as well as Tønsberg Airport, Jarlsberg. Proposals for a water aerodrome in Vollsfjorden were stopped because of lack of floats.Olsen: 118 Grenland's first airline was Telemark Flyselskap, which was founded by Sigvard Nicolaisen in 1947 and at first operated a single Piper Cub.Olsen: 119
The runway and original facilities at Geiteryggen were built by the aviation club and cost 30,000 Norwegian krone (NOK). At the time it consisted of a gravel runway.Olsen: 197 The first landing at Geiteryggen took place on 7 February 1952. Initially only the aviation club and its Piper Cub used the airport.Olsen: 151 Fjellfly was established in 1954 and was based at Geiteryggen from the following year.Olsen: 162 It flew a daily newspaper services to bring Dagbladet from Oslo to Skien.Olsen: 224 The first air show took place on 15 May 1960s and drew a crowd of 8,000.Olsen: 287
Operation of the airport was transferred to Fjellfly, but remained owned by the municipality. The airline took delivery of a Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer in 1963 and the following year established a scheduled service to Oslo Airport, Fornebu. Fjellfly was the only Norwegian airline to operate the Twin Pioneer, which was chosen because it was the only aircraft with a capacity of sixteen passengers able to land on the short strip. At its peak in 1965, Fjellfly operated fourteen aircraft.Olsen: 168 A scheduled services from Skien via Sandefjord Airport, Torp and Oslo to Hamar Airport, Stafsberg was established from 2 May 1967.Olsen: 226 The runway was extended to and paved in 1970.Olsen: 305 This allowed Fjellfly to take deliver of a de Havilland Heron for use on their service.Olsen: 280 Mey-Air showed interest in operating out of Skien in early 1972. Fjellfly went bankrupt in 1972 and Mey-Air withdrew their interest in the routes.
Norving era Following an initiative from the municipality, the Kirkenes-based airline Norving announced in January 1975 their intention to operate between Geiteryggen and Oslo and establish a base at Geiteryggen.Melling: 133 In July, a contract was signed between the municipality and Norving in which Norving was responsible for operating the airport, including manning the tower and fire service for an annual NOK 125,000 compensation and would operate the service to Fornebu for a minimum of one year. In exchange, the municipality would upgrade the airport. Operation of the route itself would not receive subsidies. Several airlines based in Southern Norway made official complaints to the ministry, largely based on it being unfair for an airline based in Northern Norway to operate a route in Southern Norway. Thus followed concession applications from Partner Air Service, a joint venture between Fjordfly, Norsk Flytjeneste and Paralift Air Service.Melling: 134
Norving's concession was granted in January 1976 and was the first time a formal taxi route concession was granted in Norway. This limited the capacity to ten passengers, but unlike a regular concession, the airline did not have an obligation to fly the route.Melling: 136 Operations started on 3 May 1976 with two daily round trips using an eight-passenger Britten-Norman Islander.Melling: 137 By September, the airline was making 22 round trips and the following month the airline ordered a ten-passenger Cessna 404 Titan to increase capacity. By May 1977, the route had 1167 monthly passengers, five daily round trips Monday through Friday.Melling: 138
In early 1976, Norving launched plans for a taxi route between Stavanger Airport, Sola and Skien. It was protested by Haugesund-based Nordsjøfly, who had started linking Haugesund to Stavanger and Bergen, and did not want another regional airline in Rogaland. Both airlines had their applications rejected by the ministry.Melling: 141 When the contract to operate Skien Airport was to be renewed in 1978, a local political debate broke out regarding whether the municipality should be subsidizing the airport all the time there was a train service to the capital. The contract was renewed and Norving continued to take advantage of both a free hangar and no landing fees.Melling: 140 Following a twenty percent growth on the Oslo–Skien route in 1978, Norving applied to increase the size of the aircraft to twenty passengers. The application was rejected by the ministry on the grounds that taxi routes were limited to ten-passenger aircraft.Melling: 157 In 1979, the route had 14,000 passengers.Melling: 161
In October 1979, Norving started a route taxi service between Skien and Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik.Melling: 158 Norving made an interlining agreement to allow passengers on the Skien to Kristiansand route to transfer to Scandinavian Airlines System's Copenhagen flight, but low patronage caused the route was terminated in February 1981.Melling: 170 Norving applied in the early 1980s for a concession on the route from Skien to Stavanger. This was granted on the condition the airline have a stopover at Farsund Airport, Lista.Melling: 200 Norving started their route in May with two daily round trips using a Cessna 441 Conquest.Melling: 201
Discussions of expanding the runway had been carried out since the 1970s, but the issue had stranded as no-one was willing to finance the venture. Skien Municipal Council wanted the municipalities of Porsgrunn and Bamble, and Telemark County Municipality to assist in the financing.Melling: 202 A route was started by Norving to Bergen in 1984.Melling: 208 A government report on the airport structure, published in April, down-prioritized Skien Airport, although it permitted state grants for an upgrade. An agreement was also made between Skien, Porsgrunn, Bamble and the county.Melling: 221 The upgrades allowed Norving to start operating the Dornier 228 at Geiteryggen, following improvements to the runway and instrument landing system.Melling: 194 From 1985 they also started using the Saab 340 on Skien flights.Melling: 282 From 1986 Norving started flights to Trondheim Airport, Værnes and Göteborg Landvetter Airport.Melling: 242
A major upgrade to the airport took place in 1985. The runway was extended to , a new terminal building was constructed and Norving built a new hangar with space for three Saab 340. The ownership of the airport was transferred to an inter-municipal enterprise owned by Skien Municipality (40%), Porsgrunn Municipality (30%), Bamble Municipality (10%) and Telemark County Municipality (10%).Olsen: 306 The official opening took place in June 1987, following investments of NOK 50 million. That year the airport had 60,000 passengers. Norving's Skien-based operations were bought by Norsk Air in 1988. Norsk Air was based at Sandefjord Airport and initially intended to operate out of both airports.Tjomsland: 143–144 The airline was bought by Widerøe in 1989 and Widerøe decided to continue operations at both Torp and Geiteryggen for a year to see where to establish its base.Tjomsland: 150–159
Rapid change of airlines Coast Aero Center received permission to fly from Stord Airport, Sørstokken via Skien to Oslo in 1987. It originally operate a ten-seat Beechcraft Super King 200, but quickly went over to the larger de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter. Permission was granted in 1988 to operate direct flights from Stord to Oslo, and the service to Skien was dropped.
Teddy Air was established in 1989 and began services from Skien to Fornebu the following year, initially using a Britten-Norman Islander. There was a lot of local opposition to the airline, and several local businesspeople claimed that it would be better if Norsk Air was awarded the contract, or Skien Airport was closed and locals instead used Sandefjord Airport. Norsk Air stated that it would not be possible for them to make money on the Skien–Oslo route; Widerøe chose to operate out of Sandefjord and from 1993 closed its operations at Geiteryggen. Teddy Air subsequently took over the Stavanger route, using an Embraer 110, while the Bergen route was granted to Air Stord, despite Teddy Air having applied for the concession. Coast Air was also awarded a concession on the route to Bergen.