page_title: Ålesund Airport, Vigra
section_title: Deregulation
hierarchical_section_title: Ålesund Airport, Vigra / History / Deregulation
caption_attribution_description: SAS Boeing 737-400 in AES, Ålesund Airport, Vigra, Norway
context_page_description: Ålesund Airport, Vigra, or alternatively Alesund Vigra Airport, is an international airport serving the town of Ålesund in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located on the island of Vigra in Giske Municipality and features a 2,314-meter runway aligned 07/25. The airport served 1,077,209 passengers in 2013, making it the tenth-busiest airport in the country. Scheduled services are provided domestically to Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim by Scandinavian Airlines ¸ Norwegian Air Shuttle and Widerøe. International scheduled services are provided by KLM Cityhopper, Norwegian, SAS and Wizz Air.
  The first airport serving Ålesund was Ålesund Airport, Sørneset, a water aerodrome. Vigra narrowly beat Aukra Airport, Gossen as the main airport for Møre og Romsdal and subsequently opened on 7 June 1958. It originally featured a 1,600-meter runway and all scheduled flights were provided by Braathens SAFE. Except for regional routes operated by Widerøe from 1971 to 1993, Braathens flew all routes out of Vigra until 1998. International flights commenced in 1977 and a new terminal opened in 1986. The National Air Ambulance Service has operated out of the airport since 1988.
context_section_description: The Norwegian airline market was deregulated from 1 April 1994. This initially had little effect on Vigra, as there were insufficient slots at Fornebu for new entrants to start flying to Ålesund. Quite the contrary, the deregulation initially led Braathens to terminate the coastal services to Northern Norway, although it maintained flights to Bergen and Trondheim. From 19 April 1998 Braathens also served Ålesund with its Boeing 737-700. A radar was installed at the airport in 1998. The same year all the electronics in the control tower were replaced.
  Fornebu was replaced by Oslo Airport, Gardermoen on 8 October 1998, which had ample room for new routes. Ålesund-based businessman Olav Nils Sunde saw the opportunity to establish a low-cost carrier, Color Air. It started twice-daily services from Ålesund to Gardermoen on 6 August, using a Boeing 737-300. SAS introduced flights from Oslo to Ålesund on 7 December. They initially used Douglas DC-9 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80, later switching to Boeing 737-600. The number of Oslo-bound flights thus increased from seven to seventeen. The three operators started an intense price war which within a year had cost them NOK 3 billion. Color Air ceased operation on 27 September 1999. SAS also opened a route to Copenhagen Airport in Denmark via Bergen, which was soon terminated.
  SAS bought Braathens in May 2001, from 2002 the two SAS Group airlines coordinated their flights to Ålesund. Their ground services were taken over by SAS Ground Handling. Norwegian Air Shuttle shifted its operations in 2002 from a regional carrier to a low-cost airline. It took up competition with the SAS Group and launched an Oslo route on 23 August 2003 using the Boeing 737-300, using Røros Flyservice as their ground handler. These were most ex-Braathens employees. Norwegian initially remained at Ålesund only until 10 October 2004. Braathens and SAS merged in 2004 to create SAS Braathens, which served Ålesund until 1 June 2007, when it again became part of Scandinavian Airlines.
  Full security check of all passengers took effect on 1 January 2004. An automated weather observing system was installed in 2006. The same year Ålesund Bilruter and the airport coach was taken over by Nettbuss. More tarmac for the general aviation section opened in 2006. In April the following year the main terminal was extended with 620 square meters (6,700 sq ft). This included an arrival section for international passengers, with its own baggage carousel and a larger duty-free store. This allowed for simultaneous arrival of domestic and international passengers.
  SAS Braathens commenced a bi-weekly service to London Gatwick Airport on 1 June 2007. It was terminated in 2008. Air Baltic introduced its Riga Airport service on 20 March 2008. SAS commenced a daily service to its hub at Copenhagen Airport from 31 March 2008. From 25 October 2009 this route was flown for SAS by Cimber Sterling using a Bombardier CRJ200 with two daily services. There was insufficient patronage for such a route and SAS resumed a daily service the following year.
  Norwegian returned to Vigra on 10 September 2008, when it reintroduced its Oslo service. They introduced bi-weekly services to Gatwick from 16 April 2011, as well as flights to Ålesund to Trondheim and Bergen from the winter program of 2011. They also established weekly services to Alicante Airport and Gran Canaria Airport in Spain in 2012. The Trondheim route had insufficient patronage and were terminated from 1 February 2013. As a response, Krohn Air introduced a twice-daily service to Trondheim on 3 March 2013. It was terminated on 13 September.
  Wizz Air introduced thrice-weekly services to Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport in Poland from March 2013. KLM Cityhopper commenced services to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport twice daily from 4 April, using the Fokker 70. It was followed up on 5 June with twice-weekly services by Wizz Air to Vilnius Airport in Lithuania. Norwegian terminated its Bergen route in January 2014. Widerøe responded by starting services to Bergen from the summer program of 2014. SAS respond
caption: Boeing 737-400 of Scandinavian Airlines
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