“I think it will be a big impact,” says Jens Lauridsen, the chief executive of operator Greenland Airports. “I’m sure we will see a lot of tourism, and we’ll see a lot of change.”
As I visit, diggers are shifting piles of rubble along the edge of the extended runway, and the finishing touches are being applied to the new terminal.
From 28 November, direct flights to Nuuk will operate from Copenhagen, carrying more than 300 passengers. And next summer, United Airlines will begin flying from New York, as Nuuk becomes Greenland’s main travel hub.
“We have been shut from the whole world, and now we’re going to open to the world,” says one young Nuuk resident. “It’s so exciting that we’re going to have the opportunity to travel from here to another country.”
In 2026, a second international airport will open in Greenland’s most popular tourist destination, the town of Ilulissat, 350 miles north of Nuuk. Ilulissat is renowned for the huge icebergs that float just off its coastline. A new regional airport, in Qaqartoq, the biggest town in the south of Greenland, will then follow.
Another young Greenlander from Nuuk, Isak Finn, says he won’t miss having to change plans at Kangerlussuaq. “It takes a long time. You have to wait, and then if there’s bad weather or not enough planes, you get stuck there. It’s so annoying.”