Greenland to get its own air traffic control

Air traffic control is expected to create 100 jobs

The Danish government has decided that a central office in Greenland will take over air traffic control for overflying aircraft from 2031. The Danish government has thus complied with a large request from the autonomous Greenland government.

The Danish decision to that extent pleases Greenland’s Minister for infrastructure, Erik Jensen: “I am very pleased that the airspace over Greenland will in future be handled from Greenland, and the prospect of up to 100 new jobs“, he says. “The decision will contribute to a long-term build-up of competence in Greenland, which in the long run can hopefully pave the way for us to one day be able to take over the case area. At the same time, I emphasise that we continue the close cooperation with Canada and Iceland both in connection with and after the air control centre moves to Greenland.”

Minister of Transport in Denmark Trine Bramsen states that it is natural that the control is handled from Greenland: “The airspace over Greenland has great geopolitical significance, and it is natural that control is carried out from Greenland. The goal is for the control to be handled from Greenland in 2031.”

Today, flights under 19,500 feet are controlled by the state-owned Naviair, while flights above that altitude are controlled from Iceland and Canada – something that now needs to be changed.

Naviair itself proposed in 2018 that the entire airspace should be controlled from Greenland from a control centre in Nuuk, with reference to the fact that it will create more tax revenue and know-how in the country.

Source: Sermitsiaq AG