Sisimiut Airport

Sisimiut Airport Mittarfik Sisimiut Sisimiut Lufthavn
de Havilland Canada Dash-7 "Taateraaq" of Air Greenland at Sisimiut Airport
IATA: JHS ICAO: BGSS
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Greenland Airport Authority (Mittarfeqarfiit)
Serves	Sisimiut, Greenland
Elevation AMSL	33 ft / 10 m
Coordinates	66°57′05″N 053°43′46″W / 66.95139°N 53.72944°W / 66.95139; -53.72944Coordinates: 66°57′05″N 053°43′46″W / 66.95139°N 53.72944°W / 66.95139; -53.72944
Website	Sisimiut Airport
Map
BGSS Location in Greenland
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 13/31 799 2,621 Asphalt
Statistics (2012)
Passengers 22,955
Source: Danish AIS Greenland

Sisimiut Airport (Greenlandic: Mittarfik Sisimiut) (IATA: JHS, ICAO: BGSS) is an airport located 2.2 NM (4.1 km; 2.5 mi) northwest of Sisimiut, a town in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. The airport has a single runway designated 13/31 which measures 799 by 30 m (2,621 by 98 ft), built on the northern shore of Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay.

For scheduled flights, the airport is served exclusively by Air Greenland, serving as a fly-through destination with no aircraft stationed onsite. Operated by Mittarfeqarfiit, it is also used for general aviation purposes.

Roads in Sisimiut, including the road to the airport, are surfaced, but there is no road linking Sisimiut to any other settlement.

With 5,460 inhabitants in 2010, Sisimiut is the second-largest town in Greenland, one of the few towns in the country exhibiting growth patterns, with corresponding increasing passenger traffic at Sisimiut Airport. Air Greenland pledges to maintain a relatively high number of flights at the airport even should the construction of the road to Kangerlussuaq commence. Apart from the connecting flights to Kangerlussuaq, the busiest routes are the routes to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and to Ilulissat, the cultural and business center of Qaasuitsup, the northernmost and largest municipality in the country.

Before the airport was opened in the 1990s, Sisimiut had been served by the now-closed heliport, located on the eastern outskirts of the town, in Sisimiut valley.

The construction of Sisimiut Airport was part of the regional airport network extension in Greenland, with several airports built to serve STOL aircraft of Air Greenland − the venerable De Havilland Canada Dash-7s acquired in the preceding decade − planes particularly suited to the often severe weather conditions in Greenland. The other new additions were Maniitsoq Airport in the southern part of the Qeqqata municipality, Aasiaat Airport in western Greenland; Qaarsut Airport and Upernavik Airport in northwestern Greenland.