The Air

The Kiruna Airport can receive, load and unload all types of aircraft in regular traffic up to the size of a Jumbo Jet. This is why even Airbus has winter tested their latest models in Kiruna. Currently this winter, among others, Eurocopter is being accommodated with their new eleven-ton helicopter for testing in a harsh winter climate.

Not only can Kiruna offer an airport with full ground service, close proximity to a modern city with a population of 20,000, there is plenty of space in the air above. The Kiruna municipality in itself is as large as half of Switzerland, but thanks to the great distances in northern Sweden, Kiruna can offer free air space with minimal scheduled airline traffic over an area equivalent to about an eighth of the entire area of Sweden.

In cooperation with the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV, Försvarets Materielverk), the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC, Rymdbolaget) has also built NEAT, Northern European Aerospace Test range. This venture, in which Esrange cooperates with the missile base in Vidsel, offers vast areas for the testing of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAV. Each base has around 6,000 km2 of landing area that can be linked together with air corridors. This renders it possible to perform UAV-tests for distances up to 350 km over uninhabited land, one way…

The American space administration NASA has also chosen Kiruna for vital parts of their research on the ozone layer. In cooperation with Swedish Space Corporation, Esrange and Swedish Civil Aviation (LFV, Luftfartsverket), NASA worked for extended periods of time in Kiruna during the year 2000. They plan to return next winter, having been very pleased with the combination of climate, geographical location and the high level of service that Kiruna offers. During their previous stays they had begun calling the people of Kiruna “the no problem people”.