Reykjavik to keep its airport until at least 2022
Photo: Iceland Monitor/RAX
Iceland’s Home Affairs Minister has written to the Mayor of Reykjavik informing him that the city should plan for the airport to remain in its current location until at least 2022.
Development plans for Reykjavik for the periods 2001-24 and 2010-30 have worked on the basis of the airport being closed down and moved away from its current site.
It is “unrealistic” to think that the policy contained in the 2010-30 plans of closing one of the two main runways – the next major stage towards closing the airport – is feasible, according to Home Affairs Minister Ólöf Nordal.
MORE: Calls for referendum on future of Reykjavik Airport
The airport will remain where it is until such time as there is a clear agreement with transport authorities to move it which the Icelandic parliament agrees to.
Ólöf Nordal, Home Affairs Minister. Photo: Iceland Monitor/Árni Sæberg
Nordal recommends in her letter to Mayor of Reykjavik Dagur B. Eggertsson that formal talks on the future of the airport should be launched as soon as possible. The Minister presented the letter to her cabinet colleagues yesterday morning.
National development plans for the country as a whole are based on Reykjavik Airport remaining in its current location until such time as the State and the City of Reykjavik reach an official agreement on moving it.
Nordal’s letter points out that that no definitive decision has yet been taken on whether moving the airport is the right thing to do, or what the best option would be.
Reykjavik Airport is located near the centre of Reykavik City and is used for domestic and emergency medical flights. Kort
