Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik

Kristiansand International Airport, Kjevik (Kristiansand lufthavn, Kjevik; ) is situated 4.3 NM northeast of the city Kristiansand, Vest-Agder in southern Norway, located 16 km from the city centre. The airport serves the Agder district with domestic and international flights. In 2008 the airport had 915,092 passengers. The airport is operated by Avinor.

The Royal Norwegian Air Force has a training centre at the airport.

History
In 1936, the city of Kristiansand decided to build an airport at Kongsgård, but later changed their minds and built it at Kjevik. The airport's construction started in 1938, and it was officially opened 1 June 1939, with a concrete runway of 1000 m and a facility to land sea planes. The first plane to land officially was a DC-2 from KLM, flying from Oslo to Amsterdam.

World War II
When the Germans attacked Norway on 9 April 1940, the airport had a small group of soldiers attached to it. After some light attacks from passing German planes and rumors of advancing German forces, the Norwegian forces retreated after trying to block the runway with barbed wire. That was not very successful and at 16:30 in the afternoon a German Junkers Ju 52 that had participated in the attack on the airport at Sola managed to land. The runway was expanded to 1500 m. The airport was quickly reinforced and already on 12 April it had 30 Messerschmitt Bf 109E stationed there. The SS leader Reinhard Heydrich, who also was a Luftwaffe pilot, was one of those who used the airport. During the rest of the war the airport played an important part in the German defence of occupied Norway. In June 1945 the airport was used by Royal Air Force and Royal Norwegian Air Force troops in the 132 N Wing.

Postwar
In 1945, the Air Force moved its technical school to Kjevik. In the same year, the municipality gave the airport to the government, and it has since been operated by Avinor. After the war, Det Norske Luftfartsselskap started flying to Kristiansand with Junkers 52 sea planes. Later, the airline moved its operations to Kjevik. Braathens S.A.F.E got a monopoly on flying from Oslo to the airport in 1955, initially using De Havilland Heron aircraft. In 1956, the airline also started flying to Stavanger and Bergen. Later, the airline started using Fokker F-27, Fokker F-28, Boeing 737 and Fokker 50 aircraft. Scandinavian Airlines did not return with domestic flights until 1998, when the new airport at Gardermoen opened and allowed the airline to start flying to Oslo, in competition with Norwegian Air Shuttle after 2008.

In 1964, the runway was expanded to its present length; the land was acquired by the municipality while the actual construction costs were financed by the government. A new terminal was built a few years later.

International routes
Before the war, Det Danske Luftfartsselskap (DDL) operated a route between Kristiansand, Aalborg and Copenhagen. After World War II, Braathens SAFE started flying to the Danish capital, but stopped after two years. In 1953, DNL's successor Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) started operating a route to their hub at Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, with a stop in Aalborg. In 1970, Kristiansand got a direct route from Copenhagen. In 1973, the airline started operating Douglas DC-9 jet aircraft on the route, but had problems filling them up and switched to Fokker F27s, and later Fokker 50s operated by SAS Commuter Eurolink.

When SAS Commuter closed down its Copenhagen route in 1994, Maersk Air started flying to Copenhagen itself, using Fokker F50 aircraft with three daily departures. Later, the airline switched to Boeing 737 and Canadair Regional Jets. Maersk Air also had a route to the earlier hub of Maersk Air, Billund (Denmark), from 1 November 2003 to 31 October 2004. For a time, the airline operated the aircraft onwards to London-Gatwick, thus giving a direct route to London from Kristiansand. But now the route has been taken over by SAS again, operated with Bombardier Q400 aircraft.

KLM started its route from Amsterdam to Oslo via Kristiansand right after the war. The route was operated until 1971, when it changed to Oslo-Gothenburg-Amsterdam. Aircraft used included Convair 440 Metropolitan, Vickers Viscount and Lockheed L-188 Electra. In 1968, the airline was the first to operate scheduled jet aircraft, Douglas DC-9s, to the airport. In 1999 the airline tried again, with three daily KLM Cityhopper Fokker 50 direct flights to Amsterdam, but closed down after a year. A few years later, it started the route again, this time with Fokker 70 aircraft. In 2012, a new airline called FlyNonstop announced that they were starting international flights from Kristiansand to seven cities in Europe. The founder stated that this would help people who live in southern Norway, since they had previously chosen to drive for three hours to Sandefjord Airport, Torp or Stavanger Airport, Sola. Flynonstop ended operations in October 2013.

Between 1963 and 1981, Dan-Air of London operated a route between Newcastle and Kjevik. Initially the airline used Airspeed Ambassadors, later switching to Hawker Siddeley HS 748s, De Havilland Comets and BAC One-Elevens. The airline also operated a route from London-Gatwick to Kristiansand for some time.

Starting in autumn 1991, Widerøe Norsk Air flew on the route from its hub at Sandefjord Airport, Torp via Kjevik to London Stansted Airport using Fokker 50 turboprop aircraft. However due to over-capacity between Norway and London at the time the service ceased after about a year.

Avinor installed a 90 m long section of engineered materials arrestor system at the end of each runway in 2012. Kjevik is the only airport in Norway with this system, as the proximity to vulnerable marine environment prohibits the creation of a conventional safety zone around the runways. The south end was installed in July and the north end later in the year. The installations cost between 70 and 80 million Norwegian krone.

FlyNonstop introduced direct scheduled flights to/from London City Airport in April 2013, using a Dutch-registered Embraer 190 flown by Denim Air crews. This service supplemented leisure flights to/from Palma de Mallorca operated by the airline. FlyNonstop ceased all flights on 29 October 2013 and declared bankruptcy.

Present
The airport's 2000 m runway has been defined as 1840 m and lacks a safety area at the southern end. The airport is installing an engineered-materials arrestor system, a method of stopping aircraft overshooting the runway, which, it is thought, might allow future safety approvals without extending the runway.

A new control tower (the airport currently operates video cameras to control the northern end of the runway) and a larger two-storey terminal have also been proposed. Various remedies have been proposed for the problem of people entering the wrong aircraft.

Ground transportation
Bus service to Kristiansand, Lillesand, Grimstad, Arendal and Tveit is available.