Mosjøen Airport, Kjærstad


Mosjøen Airport, Kjærstad is a regional airport serving the town of Mosjøen in Vefsn Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. In 2014, Mosjøen Airport had 61,480 passengers. It is owned and operated by the state-owned Avinor.

Service

The airport is served by Widerøe with Dash 8 aircraft connecting the community to the nearby towns of Bodø and Trondheim. The routes are operated on public service obligation with the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The runway is too short for flights with enough fuel to reach Oslo.

History

The airport was opened in 1987 as part of the last group of regional airports to be built in Norway.
In 2002, the Ministry of Transport launched an idea of merging the three airports serving Northern Helgeland: Mosjøen Airport, Sandnessjøen Airport, and Mo i Rana Airport into one new airport with a large enough runway to fly Airbus A320/Boeing 737 aircraft directly to Oslo, and make it unnecessary to operate subsidized regional aircraft to Helgeland. The Korgfjell Tunnel opened in 2005 created a reliable and fast road between Mosjøen and Mo i Rana. A better road to Sandnessjøen was opened 2014.
A location was selected at Drevjadalen in Vefsn, about north of Mosjøen, which is from Sandnessjøen and from Mo i Rana. Meteorological tests performed by Avinor showed however that the area had too much fog to serve as an airport. As of 2007, the idea of a new airport at this location is abandoned by both Avinor and the Ministry of Transport.
Instead of this plan, a decision was made in 2013 to build a larger airport near Mo i Rana Airport, Røssvoll.

Airlines and destinations

Ground transportation

The airport is located 10 minutes out of town. There is no bus service to the airport, but taxis are available.