Passengers from Nuuk arrive in Iqaluit despite suspension of Greenland airport’s international flights
International departures on hold over security issues at Nuuk airport
Passengers board a plane to Nuuk, Greenland, on Wednesday at the Iqaluit Airport. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Air Greenland has found a “temporary solution” after all international flights from Nuuk — including the weekly flight to Iqaluit — were suspended for two more weeks.
Nuuk-Iqaluit flights are now being rerouted through Kangerlussuaq, a municipality north of Nuuk, instead of flying direct, an airline representative said in Wednesday an email to Nunatsiaq News.
The measure is necessary because Denmark revoked the Nuuk airport’s security authorization on Aug. 14, resulting in the cancellation of international flights out of Greenland’s capital.
Air Greenland and Canadian North airlines have been providing direct weekly Iqaluit-Nuuk flights since June as part of a pilot project.
But because Nuuk’s airport lost its international flight authorization last week, passengers flying to Iqaluit or Iceland from Nuuk must make a stop in Kangerlussuaq.
There, they have to pass a second security screening, which adds an hour and a half to what should be a two-hour direct flight from Nuuk to Iqaluit.
“It’s kind of annoying, just we had to get off and get back on but it wasn’t that big of a deal,” said Brenda Koenig, a tourist from Illinois who landed in Iqaluit Wednesday afternoon after a weeklong trip to Nuuk with her husband Drew Phillips.
Last week, they were worried they might get stuck in Greenland’s capital after the weekly direct flights from Nuuk were suspended.
International flights out of Nuuk’s airport were temporarily suspended when Denmark revoked Nuuk airport’s international flight authorization.
The issues were originally expected to be resolved by Tuesday.
Greenland Airports didn’t respond to an inquiry by Nunatsiaq News.
The Nuuk airport is still able to accept international arrivals, and passengers from Iqaluit can still their destination as usual.
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory was one of the Iqaluit residents who wasn’t able to fly back home last week because of the cancelled flight and had to stay for an extra week in Nuuk, where some of her family members live.
“It was pretty crazy,” she said about last week’s cancellation after passing through a customs inspection in Iqaluit with her youngest daughter.
She only learned of the cancellation a few hours before the departure, when she was already in the Nuuk airport.
A new airport terminal in Nuuk is under construction, with work expected to be completed in the fall.
Koenig said the airport in Nuuk seems “weird” with very few staff members.
“We were laughing the whole way through, because basically they dropped us off on the runway and we just wandered until we found a taxi,” she said.
Koenig and Phillips are flying from Iqaluit to Ottawa on Thursday to head home from their vacation. They are taking an evening flight, as their original flight “doesn’t seem to exist anymore,” Koenig said.
“It seems to be that in the North you just need to be patient and flexible,” she said.
Good decision by airlines
Can still fly to and from Greenland from Nunavut
Between US and Canada there’s flight every minute, what is wrong with flight between Iqaluit and Qalaatliit Nunavut??? Fix it….
You’re not seriously comparing demand levels are you?
Qalaatliit, Nunaat. See I fix my writing.
You must be one of those people that also spell like this kamotik
It’s amazing for one flight with 20 to 30 people. It is shocking there is not news for every flight that misses Pang
Flights being delayed from pang is old news. These flights from Iqaluit to Nuuk does not happen everyday.
Do we know if our delegation of NAM, NTI, GN, and Iqaluit councilors returned from their trip before all this happened? What’s the update on that? Who went?
Just another day, everyone travelled home just fine, no real news here, flights are operating just fine.
Pilot project? In the summer of 1989 I flew to Nuuk (direct) on a turbo prop of First Air from Iqaluit and return and in October 1994 it was a pilot project using jet service to Kangerlussuaq with connection to other Greenland communities, including Nuuk also from Iqaluit and return. Thirty years later, there’s another pilot project. Weird!