Vestmannaeyjar Airport
Vestmannaeyjar Airport Vestmannaeyjaflugvöllur | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | ISAVIA | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Heimaey | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 326 ft / 99 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 63°25′30″N 020°16′45″W / 63.42500°N 20.27917°W | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
  VEY Location of Airport in Iceland | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2016[1]) | |||||||||||||||
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Vestmannaeyjar Airport (Icelandic: Vestmannaeyjaflugvöllur [ˈvɛstˌmanːaˌeiːjaˌflʏɣˌvœtlʏr̥]) (IATA: VEY, ICAO: BIVM) is a two-runway airport on the island of Heimaey, in Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), a small archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. It is also known as Westman Islands Airport. As of December 2023, it has regularly scheduled flights.
Operations[edit]
Since 2020 there has been intermittent flight service to Vestmannaeyjar airport, as there has been varying level of government support for maintaining flights.[3] In 2022 and 2023, Icelandair has offered seasonal/charter flights during the Þjóðhátið festival weekend. The airport also services general aviation and medical flights. The main alternative to flying is the ferry to Landeyjahöfn and then car to Reykjavik, which takes around 3 hours in total.
History[edit]
The airport was opened on 13 November 1946 with a 60 x 800 m single runway (13/31). It is the first airport that the Icelandic government constructed without foreign or military assistance.[4] In 1953 the first control tower was constructed. It was later lengthened to 900 m by 1973. In 1971, the second runway, 04/22, began construction. There was a lack of fill material on the island which made construction slow. [5]
During Eldfell's volcanic eruption in 1973, Vestmannaeyjar Airport served as an evacuation point for elderly and patients from the hospital who could not evacuate by boat. After the eruption was over, the tephra provided suitable materials to extend the runways to 1,300 m and 1,100 m. A new control tower was constructed in 1978 and a new terminal was opened in 1980.[5]
In 1990 the runways were paved and a new hangar added in 1995. In the year 2000, the airport terminal was expanded and renovated.[5]
Air Iceland flew multiple daily flights to Reykjavík Airport, using Bombardier Dash 8-200s in its last year of operations. There were also private flights to Bakki Airport on the southern coast of Iceland, taking approximately 7 minutes (depending on the weather). The scheduled flights to Reykjavík Airport take around 20 minutes.
After the opening of the Landeyjahöfn harbour in July 2010, which shortened the sailing time to the Icelandic mainland to 30 minutes (previously 3 hours), regular passenger flights were not as necessary as before. As a result, Air Iceland ended all scheduled activity on 3 August 2010. Eagle Air then became the main airline serving the airport, with smaller aircraft.[6]
Eagle Air suspended flights to Vestmannaeyjar in September 2020. A funding agreement was made with the Ministry of Infrastructure to subsidise flights during the from January 2021 to August 2021, with Air Iceland Connect.[7] Flights ceased after the funding ended.[8] Another agreement was made funding flights from December 2022 to April 2023, with three flights per week, this time with Eagle Air.[9] After the funding agreement ended, flights ceased again.[10]
Airlines and destinations[edit]
As of December 2023, there are regular commercial passenger flights to Vestmannaeyjar Airport, operated three times a week by Eagle Air Iceland. They will run to at least until 28 February 2024.[11][12]
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Eagle Air | Seasonal: Reykjavík[13] |
Statistics[edit]
Passengers and movements[edit]
 | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
| Number of passengers[note 1] |
Number of movements[note 2] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 45,156 | 13,244 | ||
| 2004 | 47,157 | 13,762 | ||
| 2005 | 50,490 | 13,526 | ||
| 2006 | 47,523 | 13,714 | ||
| 2007 | 48,882 | 13,200 | ||
| 2008 | 52,189 | 14,599 | ||
| 2009 | 55,382 | 11,034 | ||
| 2010 | 26,300 | 5,142 | ||
| 2011 | 20,430 | 4,022 | ||
| 2012 | 19,242 | 4,136 | ||
| 2013 | 17,655 | 4,159 | ||
| 2014 | 19,412 | 4,900 | ||
| 2015 | 19,637 | 4,718 | ||
| 2016 | 19,107 | 4,586 | ||
| 2017 | 17,395 | 4,817 | ||
| 2018 | 16,803 | 4,292 | ||
| 2019 | 11,690 | 3,484 | ||
| [14] | ||||
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ THE AVIATION FACT FILE Archived 1 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine (Isavia)
- ^ "AIP Iceland: AD 2 - BIVM - Vestmannaeyjar / Vestmannaeyjar" (PDF).
- ^ ladmin (14 April 2023). "Enn og aftur ekkert flug til Eyja". Eyjafréttir (in Icelandic). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Tilraunir til flugreksturs". vefsafn.is (in Icelandic). Retrieved 4 August 2023.
- ^ a b c "Vestmannaeyjaflugvöllur - Heimaslóð". heimaslod.is. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Vestmannaeyjar | Eagle Air Iceland". www.eagleair.is. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ "Icelandair hættir flugi til Vestmannaeyja - Vísir". visir.is (in Icelandic). 29 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Ekkert flogið til Eyja". www.vb.is. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Flug hefst að nýju til Vestmannaeyja". www.vb.is. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ ladmin (14 April 2023). "Enn og aftur ekkert flug til Eyja". Eyjafréttir (in Icelandic). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Samið við Erni um flug til Vestmannaeyja". Vegagerðin (in Icelandic). Retrieved 18 December 2023.
- ^ Ísleifsson, Atli (15 December 2023). "Semja við Erni um flug til Eyja - Vísir". visir.is (in Icelandic). Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ "Samið við Erni um flug til Vestmannaeyja".
- ^ "Passengers, freight and mail through Icelandic airports 2003-2019". PX-Web.[permanent dead link]
External links[edit]
Media related to Vestmannaeyjar Airport at Wikimedia Commons
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