Construction

The first airport in Alta was built by the Wehrmacht during the German occupation of Norway. Alta was a central part of the German military activity during World War II, resulting in an airstrip being constructed at Elvebakken in 1943. The airport was damaged beyond repair under Operation Nordlicht—the German withdrawal from Finnmark in 1944. During 1945 the Royal Norwegian Air Force operated a seaplane route along the coast of Northern Norway, which included a stop at Alta. However, the route was not resumed the following summer. The municipality started lobbying the air force and the civilian aviation authorities to establish an airline route to Alta. Specifically, they argued that both the water aerodrome at Bukta and an airfield at Altagård/Elvebakken be included in the national plans for future airports. The area at Altagårdsletta was freed up by the military in 1946 and zoned for use as an airport.

However, no progress was made with the airfield for over a decade. Instead, the water aerodrome at Bukta was upgraded. Initially the passengers were transported to the aircraft with a boat, but after a few years a floating dock was built. Services were only provided during five summer months, from May through September. During the rest of the year, Alta had no airline service; travel time to Oslo was then six days, largely by ship. The route was taken over by Widerøe in 1954, who bought a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter to serve a route from Tromsø via Alta to Hammerfest, Kirkenes and Vadsø. In Tromsø, the routes connected with a Norwegian Air Lines' seaplane service to Oslo. Bukta had 2,000 annual passengers in 1957, and the summer route was flown daily beginning in 1960.

Local politicians started discussing the airfield plans again in the mid-1950s, and an airport for Alta was included in the national airport plan launched in 1956. The municipality started preparatory work, which included expropriation of the necessary area. At that time the plans called for two runways, 1,000 and 800 meters (3,300 and 2,600 ft) long, respectively. By 1958, the municipality had also built water and sewer pipes to the airport site and had spent 60,000 Norwegian krone on the preparatory work and purchase of land. Central authorities were at the same time looking for the most suited site for an airport for western Finnmark, and were considering Lakselv Airport, Banak in Porsanger Municipality, a by-then-closed military air base.

The location in Elvebakken was somewhat controversial in Alta, especially as the airport would be located so close to the town center, potentially causing noise pollution. An alternative at Sokkelma was considered, but this was discarded because the surrounding mountains prevented good landing conditions. The decision to build Alta Airport was made in 1961, followed by additional expropriation of land. Construction was carried out simultaneously with that of Banak and Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen, which combined would give Finnmark three primary airports.

Construction started in February 1962 and cost NOK 3.2 million. The runway was completed by the fall of that year, but other parts of the construction were delayed. By late April 1963, the airport was lacking fire fighting equipment and ground crew had still not received sufficient training. However, the issues were resolved, allowing the airport to open on schedule on 4 May 1963. Lakselv and Kirkenes Airport also opened the same day, while Tromsø Airport opened the following year. Several important facilities were missing from Alta Airport when it opened; the control tower and the passenger terminal were not completed until 1964, so at first a shed was used as terminal.

Operational history

Services were at first operated by Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). At the beginning the airline used 56-passenger Convair CV-440 Metropolitan aircraft, which flew flights south to Oslo and westward to Lakselv and Kirkenes—and also to Tromsø starting in 1964. The general route scheme of flying multi-legged flights from Oslo to Finnmark remained until 1990. On 7 April 1969, SAS introduced the 85-passenger Douglas DC-9-21 jetliner on the Alta service; the last Metropolitan flew on 1 April 1970. Five regional airports opened on 1 August 1974, Sørkjosen, Hammerfest, Mehamn, Berlevåg and Vadsø, all which were connected to Alta and other primary airports by Widerøe using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters. Honningsvåg Airport opened on 1 July 1977. SAS' traffic increased throughout the 1970s, resulting in SAS gradually increasing the frequency of its services, and later also using larger DC-9s. The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 was first flown on the Alta route on 11 July 1986.

SAS Commuter was established in 1988 and started operations in Northern Norway in May 1990, making Alta its central hub for Finnmark. This involved a change to the operations so that all DC-9 services from Alta to Oslo were flown non-stop. Conversely, all services to airports in Northern Norway were flown using the smaller Fokker 50. Thus SAS was able to reduce costs by no longer operating local routes with the DC-9/MD-80 and instead increased the number of flights.