Flights over Greenland: the First Sight of Eternal Ice
Reykjavik - Kangerlusuuaq
Getting to Greenland and around the island is a complicated and expensive matter. The only cities that would fly you to Greenland are Kophengagen in Denmark and Reyjjavik in Iceland. The cheapest tickets are around $250-350 one way. Flying in between the cities in Greenland itself is sometimes the only way to get around - there are almost no roads, so boats, planes and helicopters are the only long distance transport available. Greenland in general is not the cheapest country to visit, but the flights can be one of the most expensive part of your trip.
We flew to Kangerlusuaaq through Reykjavik with AirIceland. I overlapped with Mike, the guy who I met on my hike in Alps, he was going to do Laugavengur trek in Iceland, which I did two weeks later as well.
Check-in was a total mess: the check-in windows that were assigned for out flight were occupied by the people exchanging the tickets, not sure what the problem was but we couldn't find the right window - it just didn't exist. Finally, after asking several people from staff, together with and an Indian-American family, who were going to Greenland as well, we annexed one window. It was long past the supposed check in closure time when we finally got our boarding passes. We bought some beers at the duty free and were leisurely waiting near the gate, when suddenly the screen with "Gate 1 Cophengaghen" turned into "Gate 1 Kangerlusuuaq last call". We dashed to the bus and made it - last people on the plane.
The views were worth the price of the plane ticket: icebergs, fjords and blinding eternal icecap.
Getting to Greenland and around the island is a complicated and expensive matter. The only cities that would fly you to Greenland are Kophengagen in Denmark and Reyjjavik in Iceland. The cheapest tickets are around $250-350 one way. Flying in between the cities in Greenland itself is sometimes the only way to get around - there are almost no roads, so boats, planes and helicopters are the only long distance transport available. Greenland in general is not the cheapest country to visit, but the flights can be one of the most expensive part of your trip.
We flew to Kangerlusuaaq through Reykjavik with AirIceland. I overlapped with Mike, the guy who I met on my hike in Alps, he was going to do Laugavengur trek in Iceland, which I did two weeks later as well.
Check-in was a total mess: the check-in windows that were assigned for out flight were occupied by the people exchanging the tickets, not sure what the problem was but we couldn't find the right window - it just didn't exist. Finally, after asking several people from staff, together with and an Indian-American family, who were going to Greenland as well, we annexed one window. It was long past the supposed check in closure time when we finally got our boarding passes. We bought some beers at the duty free and were leisurely waiting near the gate, when suddenly the screen with "Gate 1 Cophengaghen" turned into "Gate 1 Kangerlusuuaq last call". We dashed to the bus and made it - last people on the plane.
The views were worth the price of the plane ticket: icebergs, fjords and blinding eternal icecap.
Kangerlusuuaq - Ilulissat - Kangerlusuuaq
We had a flight to Ilulissat after two days in K. At noon we confirmed that our flight was at 3:55pm even though the boarding pass clearly said 6:55pm. Why would the flight be 3 hours late? We interrogated the management team to make sure we can come back to the airport at around 5pm - the woman at the check in said 'yes, absolutely' - the flight from Nuuk was delayed due to bad weather.
Cool, we thought, we had even more time in Kangerlusuuaq! So we went to the museum, walked around town, got some thai food. At around 4:30 (3 hours before the boarding time) we were slowly walking back to the airport, chatting and looking around, when we saw an Air Greenland jeep - the woman stopped and asked our names. We told her. "Go quickly to the gates! Your flight is departing! We were calling for your at least 20 times!". We got in the car and dashed to the gates, ran to the plane, saw the airport car unloading our luggage. We got in just in time.
Later the flight attendant asked us what time we had on our boarding passes: "Oh, it's definitely not your fault then" - she confirmed after looking at 18:55 written black on white. We landed at Ilulissat at 5:40pm. There were only 17 passengers on the flight - we were definitely an essential part of the group.
Original text: August 2017
We had a flight to Ilulissat after two days in K. At noon we confirmed that our flight was at 3:55pm even though the boarding pass clearly said 6:55pm. Why would the flight be 3 hours late? We interrogated the management team to make sure we can come back to the airport at around 5pm - the woman at the check in said 'yes, absolutely' - the flight from Nuuk was delayed due to bad weather.
Cool, we thought, we had even more time in Kangerlusuuaq! So we went to the museum, walked around town, got some thai food. At around 4:30 (3 hours before the boarding time) we were slowly walking back to the airport, chatting and looking around, when we saw an Air Greenland jeep - the woman stopped and asked our names. We told her. "Go quickly to the gates! Your flight is departing! We were calling for your at least 20 times!". We got in the car and dashed to the gates, ran to the plane, saw the airport car unloading our luggage. We got in just in time.
Later the flight attendant asked us what time we had on our boarding passes: "Oh, it's definitely not your fault then" - she confirmed after looking at 18:55 written black on white. We landed at Ilulissat at 5:40pm. There were only 17 passengers on the flight - we were definitely an essential part of the group.
Original text: August 2017