Planning

Proposals for an airport serving Molde were first put forward in 1940. Following the German occupation of Norway, Luftwaffe was interested in building an airfield to cover the county of Møre og Romsdal. They considered two sites—Årø and the island of Gossen in Aukra Municipality. The latter was selected, resulting in the construction of Aukra Airport, Gossen with its 1,600-meter (5,200 ft) wooden runway. Following the end of the war, a civilian commission looked into building a civilian, central airport for the county. It concluded that Gossen was a suitable site as it was flat and situated between the major towns of Ålesund and Molde. Significant investments had been made and the cost of converting the facility to a civilian airport would be low. However, there was some opposition to the plans. There were complaints that the airport was located too far from Kristiansund and Ålesund and that the county would be best served with multiple airports. Parliament approved the airport at Gossen in 1952.

West Norway Airlines established a seaplane route from Bergen via Ålesund, Molde and Kristiansund to Trondheim in 1950. In Molde it operated out of a water airport situated at the port in the town center. The airline proposed in 1954 that four short take-off and landing airports be built along the coast, including one in Molde. They hoped to serve these using Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneers. Årø was the preferred site, although Langmyren was also considered. However, the aircraft were not approved by the authorities, mostly because of an insufficient de-icing system. This resulted in that the plans for Ålesund Airport, Vigra to be prioritized, and soon the site was upgraded to primary airport, allowing it to open on 7 June 1958. West Norway Airlines closed shut down its flights from Molde after the 1956 season.

As a response, Molde Municipality established an airport committee in September 1958 and bought land at Årø, which at the time was located in Bolsøy Municipality. Led by merchant Petter Pettersson, it proposed the construction of a 1,250-meter (4,100 ft) runway, allowing it to handle Braathens SAFE's Fokker F-27 Friendships. At this time Molde Municipality was free to build a municipal airport, granted it followed safety regulations. This required trial landings, but due to limited capacity these were not conducted by the Civil Aviation Administration until October 1961. By then the rules had changed and airports needed a state concession to operate. A government airport commission was approved in 1962, placing all local airport plans on hold. The commission recommended that new safety margins be introduced, forcing a larger plot of land to be acquired. The effected land owners were not interested in selling, forcing the municipality to expropriate the land. The issue was not finalized until the Supreme Court came with a final ruling in favor of the municipality.

The state commission considered several locations which could serve Molde and Kristiansund, either jointly or by building two airports. Discarded sites included Gossen, Ytre Fræna in Fræna Municipality, Henda in Averøy Municipality, Osmarka, and Tingvoll. Only Årø and Kvernberget in Kristiansund were found suitable, with pivoting emphasis laid on their vicinity to their respective town centers. The commission concluded in 1964 that Kristiansund would receive the highest priority, along with Harstad/Narvik Airport, Evenes. Molde was ranked third.

Molde Municipality accepted the priority, but determined in June 1965 that they were free to finance an airport themselves. The municipal administration started working on plans and on 26 April 1966 Braathens SAFE confirmed that the airline was willing to connect Molde to Oslo, Trondheim and Bergen. Årø was aided in 1968 when the Civil Aviation Administration altered the priority of the airports, placing Molde at the top. It cited lower investments, stipulated at 13.2 million Norwegian krone rather than 22.4 million for Kvernberget. The municipality contacted contractor Olav T. Meisingset, who came with a bid for the leveling of the site. The municipality secured a loan from Kommunal Landspensjonskasse and applied the Ministry of Transport and Communications in 1969 for permission to start construction. They stated they were neutral, while the Ministry of Local Government was positive. By then construction of Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget was already under way, with the airport opening on 30 June 1970. There was a certain amount of controversy regarding the construction of Molde Airport. This would leave a smaller catchment area for the two airports, which could jeopardize good services from the region as a whole.

Construction

Ground work was contracted to Olav T. Meisingset & Co., with work commencing in early 1969. They used 110,000 man-hours to move 750,000 cubic meters (26,000,000 cu ft) of earthwork. This involved filling in part of Moldefjorden, although the moraine ground eased the work. At the most thirty people were working on the project. When the groundwork was completed, there was interest from private aircraft to land.