Ilulissat Airport
Ilulissat Airport
Ilulissat Airport (Greenlandic: Mittarfik Ilulissat, Danish: Ilulissat Lufthavn, originally Jacobshavn Lufthavn); (IATA: JAV, ICAO: BGJN) is a minor international airport serving Ilulissat, Greenland, the entire Disko Bay Region, the North and West Greenland. It is the third-busiest airport in Greenland, and the second busiest for international travel in Greenland. The airport is located north-east of Ilulissat, just 2.8 kilometres (1.7 mi) of city centre. It was built in 1984, replacing the heliport. Air Greenland uses the airport as a domestic hub for northern Greenland. A major expansion of the airport, including a new, longer runway and a new terminal, is ongoing and is slated for completion in 2026, which will allow larger jet aircraft to serve more international destinations.
Location
69.243°N, 51.057°O · 29 m s. n. m. (95 ft)
General data
Runways · 1
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
History
Prior to the 1980s, helicopters dominated domestic air travel in Greenland. A heliport was built in Ilulissat in the 1960s, located just south of the town at 69.209335°N 51.109138°W? / 69.209335; -51.109138. The government began building a network of short take-off and landing (STOL) airports in Greenland to improve connectivity, partially funded by the EU Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund. Ilulissat Airport opened on 29 September 1984, preceded by Nuuk Airport in 1979, replacing earlier heliports. Fixed wing flights using De Havilland Canada Dash 7 fixed-wing aircraft to the capital, Nuuk were now possible. Ilulissat and it became Air Greenland's northern base in Greenland, serving helicopter traffic further north and eventually more fixed-wing flights as airports such as Qaanaaq and Qaarsut and Upernavik opened in the 1990s.
Airlines operating here · 2
Airlines using it as a main base (hub)
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: Algkalv (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Ilulissat Airport (JAV). Retrieved October 22, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/JAV
MLA
“Ilulissat Airport (JAV).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/JAV. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Ilulissat Airport (JAV).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/JAV.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Ilulissat Airport (JAV). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/JAV (Accessed: 22 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_jav,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Ilulissat Airport (JAV)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/JAV},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/JAV}},
urldate = {2026-10-22},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-22}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/JAV |title=Ilulissat Airport (JAV) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-22 |language=en}}