Vágar Airport

Vágar Airport Vága Floghavn
IATA: FAE ICAO: EKVG
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Civil Aviation Administration
Location	Sørvágur, Faroe Islands
Hub for	Atlantic Airways
Elevation AMSL	280 ft / 85 m
Coordinates	62°03′49″N 007°16′38″W / 62.06361°N 7.27722°W / 62.06361; -7.27722Coordinates: 62°03′49″N 007°16′38″W / 62.06361°N 7.27722°W / 62.06361; -7.27722
Website	floghavn.fo
Map
EKVG Location in the Faroe Islands
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 12/30 1,799 5,902 Asphalt
Statistics (2015, 2012)
Passengers 276,385 +10.2% from 2,014 Movements 5,265
Source: Faroe Islands AIP at Naviair

Passengers	276,385 +10.2% from 2,014
Movements	5,265

Vágar Airport (Faroese: Vága Floghavn) (IATA: FAE, ICAO: EKVG) is the only airport in the Faroe Islands, and is located 1 NM (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) east of Sørvágur. Due to the Faroe Islands' status as a self-governing territory, the airport is not subject to the rules of the European Union. It is the main operating base for Faroese national airline Atlantic Airways and, for a brief period during 2006, was also the base for the low cost airline FaroeJet.

The airport was built by British Royal Engineers during World War II on the island of Vágar. The site was chosen mainly because it was hard to see from the surrounding waters and any potential German warship. The first aeroplane landed here in Autumn 1942. (See British occupation of the Faroe Islands in World War II).

After the war the airfield was abandoned and left unused until 1963 when it was reopened as a civilian airport at the initiative of two Sørvágur residents, Hugo Fjørðoy and Lars Larsen. The two worked with the Icelandic airline Icelandair, which began the scheduled flights to Bergen, Copenhagen and Glasgow using a Douglas DC-3 aircraft. In 1964 a separate airline, Faroe Airways, operated flights, first using chartered aircraft but in 1965 they bought a DC-3 from the Swedish airline Linjeflyg. The company ceased operating on 28 September 1967. In 1971, Icelandair was operating Boeing 727-100 jetliners into the airport with weekly nonstop service to Glasgow and Reykjavik. In 1988, Atlantic Airways was flying British Aerospace BAe 146-200 jet service nonstop to Copenhagen. Until 2004 Maersk Air also operated flights into the airport. Maersk Air flew Boeing 737-500 jetliners into the airport with service to Copenhagen.