Improvements to Akureyri Airport in northern Iceland will proceed at a faster pace now that the Minister of Transport, Kristján Möller, and the rest of the government have agreed to speed up the pace of work. The airport development is scheduled to finish one year ahead of schedule and should be ready for the public in the autumn of 2008.
Construction is currently underway to lengthen the airfield and resurface the area. A security zone is being added to the end of the airfield and new landing equipment is being acquired by the airport.
The improved airport is part of the government’s economic development strategy which is focusing its efforts on areas other than Reykjavik.
“It will greatly increase the usability of the airport and improve the tourist industry in Akureyri and in the entire north Icelandic region,” Möller claimed. “It will also be good for companies exporting fish via air. ”
Airports are not the only thing being developed in the new economic strategy. Transport in the Eyjafjördur region around Akureyri is being made easier by the construction of tunnels between Siglufjördur and Ólafsfjördur. Other tunnels will travel beneath the Hédinsfjördur fjord and another tunnel through the Vadlaheidi mountain.
The airport project will be the first to be completed, however, with the Hédinsfjördur tunnel not expected to open until 2009 and the Vadlaheidi tunnel not expected until several years later.