Hammerfest Airport

Hammerfest Airport Hammerfest lufthavn
IATA: HFT ICAO: ENHF
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Avinor
Serves	Hammerfest
Location	Prærien, Hammerfest, Norway
Elevation AMSL	80 m / 262 ft
Coordinates	70°40′47″N 023°40′07″E / 70.67972°N 23.66861°E / 70.67972; 23.66861
Website	avinor.no
Map
HFT
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 05/23 880 2,890 Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Passengers 145,396 Aircraft movements 13,822 Cargo (tonnes) 16
Source:[1][2]

Hammerfest Airport (Norwegian: Hammerfest lufthavn; IATA: HFT, ICAO: ENHF) is a regional airport at Prærien just outside the town of Hammerfest in Hammerfest Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. It is operated by the state-owned Avinor and handled 145,396 passengers in 2014, making it the third-busiest regional airport in the country. The airport has a 880-meter (2,890 ft) runway aligned 05/23. Services are provided by Widerøe using the Dash 8-100. Up to eight daily flights are provided to Tromsø and public service obligation flights are flown eastwards to other airports in Finnmark. The airport is the base for offshore helicopter services operated by Bristow Norway and CHC Helikopter Service. An estimated 40,000 people from Hammerfest Airport's catchment area annually use Alta Airport for flights to Oslo.

Hammerfest was served from 1935 by scheduled seaplanes at a water aerodrome at Rypefjord. Services were interrupted by World War II, but resumed in 1945, lasting until the 1963 opening of Alta Airport. Hammerfest Airport opened on 1 August 1974, along with four other regional airport in Finnmark, and was originally served with de Havilland Canada Twin Otters. The de Havilland Canada Dash 7 was introduced in 1983 and a helicopter base was established in 1989. The Dash 8 was introduced in 1995 and the airport was nationalized two years later. A Dash 8 was damaged beyond repair after a hard landing in 2005. Because of the limited space for expansion and unfavorable wind conditions, there is a proposal to build a new airport at Grøtnes.