Kirkenes Airport , Høybuktmoen Kirkenes Airport , Høybuktmoen ( ; ) is an international airport located at Høybuktmoen , west of the town of Kirkenes , in the municipality of Sør - Varanger , Finnmark county , Norway . Operated by the state - owned Avinor , the airport has a single asphalt runway numbered 06 – 24 . Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle operate Boeing 737 - services to Oslo Airport , Gardermoen , in part generated by Høybuktmoen ' s function as a hub for Widerøe ' s regional services to other airports in eastern Finnmark . There are also summer charter flights to Central Europe to bring tourists to the Hurtigruten cruises . The airport had 298 , 184 passengers in 2011 . Høybuktmoen was built as a military air station by the " Luftwaffe " during World War II . Civilian services were introduced after the war , but abandoned in 1948 . The airport reopened in 1963 with a new terminal and an extended runway . Originally the airport was served by Scandinavian Airlines System and Finnair , and from the 1970s also Widerøe and Norving . Since 1990 , five airlines have attempted to provide services to Murmansk , Russia . Originally the airport had two runways , long , respectively , but the smaller was closed in 1996 when the longer was extended . A new terminal building was put into use in 2006 . Because of the terrain the runway ' s length cannot be exploited under some wind conditions , so there is a proposal to level some of the land . History . Construction . The first aircraft to land in Sør - Varanger was part of a trial undertaken in 1922 by the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service to test the flight time from Horten to Kirkenes . The mission was awarded to Hjalmar Riiser - Larsen and Finn Lützow - Holm , who chose to fly the 45 - hour trip along the coast . The next landing was a military Fokker which landed on the iced lake of Andrevann in 1934 . Widerøe undertook several flights within the municipality in 1937 , offering sightseeing and undertaking aerial photography . The first scheduled service started to Kirkenes the following summer with postal flights to Tromsø flown by Widerøe on behalf of Norwegian Air Lines ( DNL ) . The flight allowed post to be sent from Oslo to Kirkenes in one day and was continued the next season . The route was flown from Tromsø with intermediate stops at Vadsø and Hammerfest . There were public demands for passenger services be started . Instead , in 1940 the German occupation of Norway terminated all civilian aviation until 1945 . A limited service was kept in Northern Norway during the resistance , but these were terminated after the German forces took control of the whole country . From 26 September 1940 , three weekly services were operated from Trondheim to Tromsø , with two of these continuing to Kirkenes , using a 16 - passenger Junkers Ju - 52 . This was terminated on 20 March 1941 , after most of the airline ' s pilots had fled to the United Kingdom to support the Allied forces . Høybuktmoen was selected by the " Luftwaffe " as one of three air stations in Northern Norway , along with Bardufoss Airport and Lakselv Airport , Banak . They built two runways , long , respectively . Høybuktmoen was primarily used for attacks against the Arctic convoys . With the German withdraw in Operation Nordlicht in October 1944 , the runways were blasted at several points . The damaged proved easy to repair and by January 1945 , both troops of Norwegian police officers from Sweden led by Bernt Balchen and the Soviet Air Forces could land at Høybuktmoen . Reopening . The first service after the war was started by DNL on 13 October 1945 and flew to Tromsø , with onwards connection to Trondheim and Oslo . The service only lasted until 1948 , when it was replaced with a Ju - 52 seaplane route with intermediate stops at Vadsø and Hammerfest to Tromsø . The route flew one direction each day , was only operated during the summer and was plagued with poor regularity . The original water aerodrome was located at Soldatbukta at Prestøya . Later it was moved to the quay on the north side of Langfjorden , on the other side as Kirkenes . Passengers were therefore freighted across the fjord by boat to the aircraft . The air traffic control moved from Høybuktmoen to Haganes in 1949 , but returned in 1963 . The route had doubled its patronage since its introduction by 1953 — the last year it was operated by DNL . From 1954 the route was taken over by Widerøe , who introduced smaller Noorduyn Norseman and de Havilland Canada DHC - 3 Otter aircraft . The Widerøe seaplane service was flown on behalf of DNL and later Scandinavian Airlines System ( SAS ) and remained until 1963 . Varangfly — based in Kirkenes — was established in 1959 by general aviation enthusiasts from Kirkenes Flyklubb . The airline originally had two seaplanes , a two - seat Piper J - 3 Cub and a five - seat Norsk Flyindustri C - 5 Polar . Operations started on 17 June 1960 . The company gradually developed services within scheduled , charter and air ambulance services . Varangfly later also bought an eight - seat land aircraft which was operated to Lakselv and Bardufoss , and to Ivalo Airport in Finland , where i corresponded with Finnair ' s service to Helsinki . Planning for a new airport at Høybunktmoen was initiated by a committee established by the Ministry of Transport and Communications in 1947 , and resulted in the National Plan of 1952 . Although Kirkenes was included in the plan construction was placed on hold , both because of high costs and because other airports further south had to be completed before or at the same time . Construction at Høybuktmoen started in 1961 and the airport opened on 4 May 1963 . Work consisted of expanding the east – west runway to and building a new passenger terminal and control tower ; the latter two were not completed in time for the opening . Alta Airport and Lakselv Airport , Banak opened the same year , and Tromsø Airport followed suit the following year . Operational history . SAS introduced the 52 - passenger Convair Metropolitan on their domestic services , while Finnair served the airport with the 30 - seat Douglas DC - 3 on their flights to Finland . In the first month the two airlines had 88 aircraft movements , while the Royal Norwegian Air Force had 44 and Varangfly 60 . Both SAS and Finnair replaced Varangfly ' s routes , which did not operate scheduled flights from the new airport . Varangfly therefore sold its land aircraft and instead became a seaplane operator . SAS introduced the 122 - passenger Douglas DC - 9 jet aircraft at Kirkenes from 1969 . Helikopter Service flew a civilian helicopter to Høybuktmoen for the first time the same year . Kirkenes Airport served 20 , 638 passengers in 1964 and 40 , 477 in 1970 . Busy Bee was contracted by the Norwegian Armed Forces to fly military charters in June 1968 . They had two 50 - passenger Fokker F27 Friendship s stationed at Høybuktmoen and flew two daily services from Kirkenes and other locations in Northern Norway to Bodø , with onwards connection to Stavanger and Oslo on Fridays . This arrangement continued until Busy Bee ' s bankruptcy in 1992 . Varangfly merged with two other airlines in 1970 to create the Kirkenes - based Norving . The new airline bought an eight - passenger Britten Norman Islander and started round trips between Kirkenes and the newly upgraded Berlevåg Airport and Mehamn Airport . This was later followed up with routes to Hasvik Airport and Kjøllefjord Airport , and in 1975 to Båtsfjord Airport and Vadsø Airport . On the other hand , Widerøe received the concessions to operate to Hammerfest Airport , which opened on 1 August 1973 , and Honningsvåg Airport , which opened in 1977 . To serve the regional services Widerøe originally operated twenty - passenger de Havilland Canada aircraft . Finnair terminated their services to Kirkenes in 1975 . At the same time the ministry and SAS started looking at the airport structure in Finnmark , as all the services in the county were in need of subsidies . The proposals were either for a hike in the ticket prices or a reduction of Kirkenes to a regional - only airport . SAS was flying a 90 - seat aircraft two to three times per day between Kirkenes and Alta with only ten to fifteen passengers . The airport structure was kept , but ticket prices continued to rise . The airport served 110 , 000 passengers in 1983 . Norving continued Varangfly ' s air ambulance contract until 1987 , when the service was taken over by Air Express . Later the contract was awarded to Lufttransport , who operated the Beechcraft Super King Air . Norving filed for bankruptcy in 1992 and their routes were taken over by Widerøe . SAS Commuter was established in 1988 and started operations in Northern Norway in May 1990 . This involved a change to the operations so that all DC - 9 services from Kirkenes to Oslo were terminated and instead Fokker 50 services were introduced to Alta and Tromsø . SAS was able to reduce costs by no longer operating local routes with the DC - 9 and instead increased the number of flights . The new system was met with massive opposition in Kirkenes . Emergency meetings were being held between SAS Commuter and the ministry by June 1990 because of low regularity and many cancellations . Non - transfer flights from Kirkenes to Oslo were reintroduced on 1 April 1992 , albeit with the services stopping at Tromsø . Service between Kirkenes and Murmansk Airport were initiated by SAS Commuter in 1990 , but the airline quickly terminated the service . Aeroflot started two weekly services between Kirkenes and Murmansk and onwards to Arkhangelsk Airport in June 1990 . The service was summer - only until 1992 , when they increased to an all - year service . Norving also started a service from Kirkenes to Murmansk , but their service terminated with the airline failing . Widerøe started two weekly services between Kirkenes and Murmansk in 1994 , using Twin Otter aircraft . Aeroflot terminated their service in 1998 and Widerøe followed suit in 2000 . The runway was extended eastwards by in the late 1990s . The first expansion took place in 1996 and the second in 2000 . The extensions never received operating permit from the Civil Aviation Authority of Norway as there are two hills which hinder aircraft landing from the east to follow a safe final approach . Arctic Air took over Widerøe ' s flights to Vardø in 2000 , using a 19 - passenger Dornier Do 228 . They also flew a service to Murmansk in 2001 and 2002 . They lost the Vardø – Kirkenes contract back to Widerøe in 2003 . SAS bought Braathens in 2002 , resulting in the latter taking over the service and increasing to two daily flights to Oslo . SAS and Braathens merged in 2004 to form SAS Braathens . The airline changed its name back to Scandinavian Airlines in 2007 . Norwegian Air Shuttle started flights from Kirkenes to Oslo in 2004 , at first with four weekly services . The terminal building was almost unchanged since 1963 , although it had seem some smaller upgrades . Avinor decided in 2004 that the terminal would be upgraded , consisting a new road to the airport , parking lot , tarmac and terminal . The investments cost NOK 180 million and opened on 4 May 2006 . Widerøe reopened its Murmansk service in August 2007 , but low patronage caused the airline to terminate the route from December 2008 . SAS reduced from two to one daily trip to Oslo in 2008 . Facilities . The airport is located at Høybuktmoen in Sør - Varanger , about west of Kirkenes . The terminal has place for six category C aircraft ( Airbus A320 / Boeing 737 ) . During summer the airport experiences a very high traffic peak with both scheduled and charter aircraft arriving at the same time , as both intend to correspond with Hurtigruten ; this causes patronage to rise beyond the airport ' s capacity . Kirkenes Airport had a revenue of NOK 26 . 4 million in 2009 , of which commercial income made up fifteen percent , and an operating deficit of NOK 45 . 4 million . The deficit is cross subsidized by profits at Avinor ' s largest airports . In 2011 , the airport had 298 , 184 passengers , 8 , 735 aircraft movements and 686 tonnes of cargo . The runway is located southwest – northeast ( 06 – 24 ) and is . The touchdown zone from the west is from the start of the runway , while it is from the east . There are no parallel taxiway s , but two taxiways run from the runway to the tarmac . Because of the terrain to the east the maximum take - off lengths on the runway vary depending on the direction : it is only from the east compared to from the west . Runway 24 is equipped with instrument landing system . There is also a closed runway located normally to the main runway ( 14 – 32 ) . It is long and gravel ; part of the length has been paved and is used as a taxiway . The airport is located next to European Road E6 . Boreal Transport operates an airport coach service from Kirkenes to the airport in connection with all arrivals and departures . The company also serves the airport with coach services from Kirkenes to other parts of Finnmark . Parking , taxis and car rental is available at the airport . Airlines and destinations . Three airlines serve the airport with scheduled flights . Scandinavian Airlines ( SAS ) and Norwegian Air Shuttle both operate a daily flight to Oslo , with SAS operating two services per day during summer ; both airlines use the Boeing 737 . Widerøe flies to various regional airports in Finnmark and Troms , and uses Kirkenes as a hub to feed regional passengers to Oslo flights . Widerøe operates its eight daily services with de Havilland Canada Dash 8 aircraft . Hamburg International operates charter services from Germany from May to September on behalf of Hurtigruten Group with tourist transferring to the Hurtigruten coastal voyage . There are sporadic charters of fishermen operated by Atlantic Airways . Future . In the period 2015 to 2020 , Avinor plans to build a new control tower and a new fire - and rescue station . The former is located too close to the runway while the latter is too small and out of date . There are also plans to expand the terminal building to allow the simultaneous handling of two large and two small aircraft . Finnmark County Municipality is considering establishing a fast ferry service between Kirkenes and Vadsø which would have a service time of 45 minutes . There is a possibility of marketing Kirkenes as an alternative airport for Murmansk as Kirkenes can offer cheaper flights to Oslo than what is available from Murmansk to Moscow . Avinor has also proposed lowering the terrain east of the airport . The terrain is actually flatter to the east , but because the runway was expanded in that direction , the extension cannot be used without removing all ground in the twelve - degree slope . Although it has no impact on smaller aircraft , the reduced runway length has a severe impact on the performance of Boeing 737 aircraft , which are used by both Norwegian and SAS . For instance , during winter a 180 - seat 737 - 800 can only utilize 71 percent of its permitted take - off weight ; this would hinder fully loaded aircraft flying further than Oslo . The impacts for 150 - seat 737 - 700 aircraft are smaller , as they can reach Oslo during winter and Berlin during summer . The airport served 169 , 428 passengers in 1996 and 216 , 000 passengers in 2000 . The project was estimated to cost 267 million Norwegian krone . Estimates show that the benefit for society would be lower than the investment costs ( a negative net present value ) , giving an average estimated NOK 124 million deficit . Norwegian Air Shuttle is building a unified fleet of 737 - 800 aircraft and will only be able to serve the airport during winter if the investments are carried out . The extension would allow increased charter traffic to Central Europe and increased regularity with existing flights . Avinor has stated that it cannot finance the investments without direct subsidies from the state .