Narsarsuaq Airport is the flight hub of South Greenland (until the new airport in Qaqortoq is finished).

Narsarsuaq Airport was built during WWII as a stopover for American fighters on their way to the front in Europe.

The airstrip is approx. 6,500 feet (1,980 meters) long. An alternate airstrip was also built but never really used for landing and take-off as the wind in Narsarsuaq goes south-north or north-south, but never to and from east-west. Rumor has it that it was used as a go-kart track.

After the Americans left Bluie West 1, as the Air Base was originally called, Narsarsuaq became a civilian airport and the hub of South Greenland with transatlantic flights to Denmark and Iceland and domestic flights to Nuuk, Paamiut, and Kangerlussuaq. Until the building of the airport in Qaqortoq, all domestic flights within south Greenland have been handled by helicopters.

Photos: Hanne Vestermark and Jesper Kunuk Egede.