Sisimiut Airport

Sisimiut Airport (Greenlandic: Mittarfik Sisimiut) (IATA: JHS, ICAO: BGSS) is an airport located 2.2 NM (4.1 km; 2.5 mi) northwest of Sisimiut, a town in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. The airport has a single runway designated 14/32 which measures 799 by 30 m (2,621 by 98 ft), built on the northern shore of Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay.

For scheduled flights, the airport is served exclusively by Air Greenland, serving as a fly-through destination with no aircraft stationed onsite. Operated by Mittarfeqarfiit, it is also used for general aviation purposes.

Airlines and destinations

History

Before the airport was opened in the 1990s, Sisimiut had been served by the now-closed heliport, located on the eastern outskirts of the town, in Sisimiut valley.

The construction of Sisimiut Airport was part of the regional airport network extension in Greenland, with several airports built to serve STOL aircraft of Air Greenland − the venerable De Havilland Canada Dash-7s acquired in the preceding decade − planes particularly suited to the often severe weather conditions in Greenland. The other new additions were Maniitsoq Airport in the southern part of the Qeqqata municipality, Aasiaat Airport in western Greenland; Qaarsut Airport and Upernavik Airport in northwestern Greenland.

Sisimiut

Sisimiut, formerly Holsteinsborg, is a town in central-western Greenland, located on the coast of Davis Strait, approximately 320 km (200 mi) north of Nuuk. It is the administrative center of the Qeqqata Municipality and the second-largest town in Greenland, with a population of 5,598 people in 2013.

Although now a place-name, Sisimiut literally means "the people at the fox burrows". The site has been inhabited for the last 4,500 years, first by the Inuit peoples of the Saqqaq culture, Dorset culture, and then the Thule people, whose descendants form the majority of the current population. Artifacts from the early settlement era can be found throughout the region, favored in the past for its plentiful fauna, particularly the marine mammals providing subsistence for the early hunting societies. The population of modern Greenlanders in Sisimiut is a mix of the Inuit and Danish peoples, who first settled in the area in the 1720s, under the leadership of the Danish missionary, Hans Egede.