En Dash 7 i Qaarsut med Nuussuaq i baggrunden
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Det er hele vinteren nødvendigt at rydde for sne |
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Der blev bygget flere og flere lufthavne. Her er det lufthavnen i Upernavik |
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Julemandskongres i Grønland i 1995 |
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Helikopterflyvninger til iskanten ved Kangia blev mere og mere populære |
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Grønlandsfly uddanner fortsat mange mekanikere, piloter og trafikpersonale |
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Hotel Arctic, Air Greenlands hotel i Ilulissat, satsede mere og mere på turismen |
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I 1998 fik Air Greenland sit første Atlantfly, en Boeing 757, der blev døbt Kunuunnguaq |
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10 år efter Kunuunnguaq startede, kunne næsten det samme personale (her i 2008 med direktør Michael Binzer) fejre 10-året for Atlantruten. Fra venstre: Allan Mollerup, Ran Piontek, Kista Vængtoft, Magdalene Lyberth, Michael Binzer, Heidi Lyberth, Maja Motzfeldt, Henrik Madsen, Kim Dahl og Carsten Siegstad |
Greenlandair 1990-99
Across the Atlantic on wings of its own
The pioneering era was long gone. Over a span of three decades Greenlandair had developed a vast route net in the Arctic. On routes with marginal economies, even the remotest small towns and villages had regular connections. Greenlandair flew passengers to Kangerlussuaq – and handed them over to SAS, which had a monopoly on the lucrative route from there to Denmark. It could not go on like this!
In 1986, Greenlandair had already joined with Icelandair to make the first small breach in the monopoly across the Atlantic with a route from Narsarsuaq via Keflavik to Copenhagen. In the beginning of the 90s this was replaced by the direct route Narsarsuaq-Copenhagen, which Greenlandair operated with a chartered aircraft from Maersk Air (since closed) – but SAS was still alone on the primary connection between Greenland and the rest of the world: Kangerlussuaq-Copenhagen.
Kunuunnguaq
With the increased national awareness, the SAS monopoly across the Atlantic became a symbol of a time that had ended a long time ago. Politicians were making themselves heard more strongly, expert committees wrote recommendations and Greenlandair and SAS alternately worked together and argued, but they were no closer to a solution.
In May 1998 Greenlandair took the affair into its own hands. The company presented its newly-purchased Boeing 737, called “Kunuunnguaq” – named after Knud Rasmussen - and opened its Kangerlussuaq-Copenhagen route in competition with SAS. Passengers could now fly Greenlandic all the way in one, cohesive traffic system. However, Greenlandair and SAS flew almost wing to wing across the Atlantic well into the new millennium.
New runways
On the domestic front, the old systems were also blown full of holes during the 90s. The Dash-7 routes to airports in Nuuk and Ilulissat had demonstrated the advantages of aircraft compared to helicopters and the Greenland Home Rule now invested heavily in short runways. At the end of the 90s new airports were opened in Maniitsoq, Sisimiut, Aasiaat, Qaarsut and Upernavik.
Greenlandair was now able to turbo-charge flying. The company purchased its fifth Dash-7 and opened routes to the new airports from day one. For Greenland the advantages were significant: The new Dash-7 routes were both cheaper, faster and they operated with far more regularity than the former helicopter routes.
Busy helicopters
Although the seven towns on the west coast now had runways, the helicopters still did most of the work of flying people and cargo from place to place. Towns in Disko Bay, in South Greenland and in East Greenland still only had heliports.
Greenlandair was able to reduce its fleet of the big S-61 helicopters, but on the other hand, mineral exploration and other activities created increased demand for helicopters. At the end of the 90s the company had three S-61, four Bell 212, four MD 500 and five AS 350 helicopters.
The number of passengers also increased sharply in this decade. In 1999 Greenlandair welcomed 282,000 passengers aboard.
