Greenland’s air transportation hub

KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND — If you’re not in a hurry, it’s a little like winning the lottery: leaving Ottawa in the morning for a routine flight to Iqaluit and ending up instead in a foreign country: Greenland.

Out of more than 17,000 flights operated by First Air every year, 100 are diverted from their original destinations due to bad weather. Few of these involve flights from Montreal or Ottawa, and even fewer end up going to Greenland.

But that happened twice in August.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, the weather in Iqaluit didn’t cooperate and we’re heading over to Kangerlussuaq, or Søndre Strømfjord, Greenland, where we will see how conditions develop.”

That was the pilot’s message to passengers on a First Air flight Monday from Ottawa to Iqaluit.

Fog in Iqaluit that day erased visibility, preventing the Boeing 737 jet from approaching the runway over the hills north of town. Strong tailwinds meant the aircraft also couldn’t descend over the bay — the direction that pilots normally approach from when visibility is low.

Aborting landings is routine when weather falls short of the minimum-allowable conditions, first officer Bill Tate explained later in the Kangerlussuaq Airport.
“They can’t force us to land when it’s not safe,” Tate said.

Under sunny skies, the Kangerlussuaq airport is a safe haven. Its airstrip, built by the U.S. government in 1942, is 9,300 feet long — even longer than Iqaluit’s seemingly endless 8,600-foot runway.

And, as it turns out, Kangerlussuaq is a fine place to wait out bad weather.
Since the Greenlandic Home Rule Government took over this airport in 1992 and put the facility’s operations under the Mittarfeqarfiit Corp., Kangerlussuaq has developed into Greenland’s air transportation hub.

Ninety per cent of passengers who fly in Greenland pass through the airport.
The airport terminal is modern and compact. It includes a hotel, restaurant, cafeteria, displays of Greenlandic crafts, duty free boutiques with Danish and Greenlandic products, and even a bar smack in the middle of the waiting area.

Tourists can make the most of their time in Kangerlussuaq, too – there’s an information booth at the airport, and tours that depart from the terminal. A green mini-bus, with a sign reading “Kangerlussuaq Tourism,” takes visitors to the nearby harbour and the end of the long fiord.

The tiny community around the airport is housed in a long apartment complex and several other “bloks” of houses. There’s a well-stocked store, playgrounds, and an outdoor ice cream kiosk.

Not one piece of litter mars the scene.

Four-and-a-half hours after landing in Søndre Strømfjord, the jet takes off towards Iqaluit.

Many passengers have been inconvenienced by the unexpected layover.

The Akpiq Jam’s sound engineer probably won’t make it to Kuujjuaq for the music festival’s first night, since the next flight to Kuujjuaq from Iqaluit doesn’t leave until Wednesday.

One passenger, an American without a passport, was forced to wait in the aircraft the entire time. So was a dog bound for Hall Beach.

According to Tracy Beeman, First Air’s marketing director, this kind of detour is a rarity. The airline generally flies only once a week, on Tuesdays, to Kangerlussuaq.