newstodate.aero
Dec 17, 2013 (newstodate): On October 25, 2013, the Government of Iceland and City of Reykjavik signed an agreement to keep Reykjavik International Airport in its current location in central Reykjavik until 2022.
In the meantime, a new study is to be made of the options of relocating the airport in the vicinity of the city as a part of a new detailed land use plan.
The airport is serving as the hub for Icelandic domestic flight services and international connections to Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
An earlier plan from 2002 called for a substantial reduction of the airport by 2016, and a full departure by 2024, with the aim of using the land for development.
A later plan for a consolidated traffic terminal serving both public land and air transportation was superseded by an agreement in 2012 to develop an improved airline passenger terminal and closure of one runway, neither of which was realized.
The airport was originally built in the outskirts of the city during the Second World War.
The future of the airport remains an ongoing debate with the three options being to keep the airport as it is, build a new one in the Reykjavik area, or closing the airport and moving the domestic flight operation to Keflavik International Airport some 40 minutes away by car.
The first choice would make it impossible to develop the highly valued land. The second choice would be most costly both in terms of development and loss of capacity. The third option would hurt the domestic service but would give direct connections between rural Iceland and the rest of the world, provided that the domestic service survived the move.
In the meantime, a new study is to be made of the options of relocating the airport in the vicinity of the city as a part of a new detailed land use plan.
The airport is serving as the hub for Icelandic domestic flight services and international connections to Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
An earlier plan from 2002 called for a substantial reduction of the airport by 2016, and a full departure by 2024, with the aim of using the land for development.
A later plan for a consolidated traffic terminal serving both public land and air transportation was superseded by an agreement in 2012 to develop an improved airline passenger terminal and closure of one runway, neither of which was realized.
The airport was originally built in the outskirts of the city during the Second World War.
The future of the airport remains an ongoing debate with the three options being to keep the airport as it is, build a new one in the Reykjavik area, or closing the airport and moving the domestic flight operation to Keflavik International Airport some 40 minutes away by car.
The first choice would make it impossible to develop the highly valued land. The second choice would be most costly both in terms of development and loss of capacity. The third option would hurt the domestic service but would give direct connections between rural Iceland and the rest of the world, provided that the domestic service survived the move.