November 2nd, 2023 - Flight to Ilulissat
Our onward flight to Ilulissat via Kangerlussuaq took off at 9:45am. At dawn, we could see the Öresund Bridge, the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge for combined road and rail traffic between Denmark and Sweden, from our hotel window.
After a substantial hotel breakfast, we checked in at 8 a.m. for our flight with Air Greenland. We were surprised to discover that we had booked seats in Business Class through Greenland Travel, so we went to the Business Lounge before boarding. Boarding began at 9:00 a.m. and we took our comfortable seats in the Business Class cabin of the Air Greenland Airbus A330-800.
By the way, this aircraft is Air Greenland’s only jet. All the other aircraft are De Havilland Canada Dash 8-200 turboprops, and Air Greenland also has several helicopters. We even had access to the Internet on board during the flight.
Our 4 1/2-hour flight across Iceland to Kangerlussuaq took off on time. After about 3 hours we reached the east coast of Greenland and spotted the first icebergs:
Greenland is located much further west than Germany in a different time zone. As Greenland decided in 2023 to keep summer time even in winter, this resulted in a time difference of 3 hours, so we arrived in Kangerlussuaq shortly after 11:00 a.m. local time.
Kangerlussuaq is located approx. 50 km north of the Arctic Circle and approx. 130 km from the open sea, making it by far the most inland town in Greenland. The town actually consists mainly of the airport and a hotel, which is probably only there to accommodate passengers in case an onward flight cannot depart for some reason. As our plane is the only larger aircraft to land here, its arrival is certainly always THE event of the day.
By the way: As is often the case in Greenland, the village owes its existence to the US and the events of the Second World War:
After the occupation of Denmark during the Second World War, the security responsibility for Greenland was transferred to the USA by agreement on April the 9th, 1941. The US then began building numerous military bases on Greenland. The US military base Bluie West Eight was built here in what is now Kangerlussuaq and went into operation on October 7, 1941. It had a sufficiently long runway from which larger aircraft could also take off.
In 1954, SAS Scandinavian Airlines began commercial flight operations at the military base and offered the first flight connection between Europe and the North American west coast with a stopover in Kangerlussuaq. In 1967, a flight connection to Copenhagen was established. The military base was handed over to the Greenlandic government on September the 30th, 1992
However, the future existence of the site is at risk. On the one hand, the runway is suffering severely from the warming of the permafrost. On the other hand, there are currently plans for international airports in both Nuuk (Greenland’s capital) and Ilulissat.
We had a two-hour stopover in Kangerlussuaq, then continued on to Ilulissat in a De Havilland DHC-8 200 turboprop with 36 seats.
The flight was without any problems, it only took about 40 minutes. We were even served coffee on board. Shortly before landing, we saw some of the icebergs for which Ilulissat is famous. Some were as big as cruise ships, very impressive!
We were picked up at the airport by a shuttle bus and taken to our hotel “Arctic”. Our guide Simone was already waiting for us at the hotel. As the sun was already setting here shortly after 4 p.m., we didn’t have much time to change clothes for the planned “city” tour. We met up with a young Dutch couple in the hotel lobby at around 3 p.m. and were driven to the town center together. Our guide Simone then walked and showed us the town around.
City tour
Ilulissat is the third largest town in Greenland, but still only has a population of around 4,700. The largest city in Greenland is the capital Nuuk with a population of around 18,000. In total, only 56,000 people live in Greenland.
The large red building is the local hospital and there is also a small church. The last building houses a small museum. Knud Rasmussen, a Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer, ethnologist and author, had previously lived there.
I was surprised that the houses were all made of wood. They also didn’t seem particularly well insulated despite the extremely low temperatures here. I also found this astonishing, as there are no trees on Greenland and all wood therefore has to be imported from long distances.
Our guide Simone explained that brickwork would crack due to the harsh temperature conditions and that wood used to be the only durable construction material. Nowadays, however, concrete and steel are also used. Heating is provided by oil, which is heavily subsidized. The low price of energy obviously does not provide much incentive for more extensive and expensive insulation measures.
Economy
Most jobs in Ilulissat are in administration, the service sector, trade and the repair trade. Other important economic sectors are transportation and fishing, which accounts for most of the income in Ilulissat. Especially Greenland halibut and shrimps are caught and processed in the Royal Greenland fish factory.
Recently, however, tourism has also increased significantly. Several thousand tourists visit the city every year. This makes it the most important tourist destination in the country, ahead of the capital Nuuk. There are already several hotels and travel agencies in the city.
After the city tour, it was already getting dark again. The day only had about 6 hours here. Our Hotel Arctic was on the northern edge of the city and we had a magnificent view of the bay with the icebergs passing by from our comfortable room:
On the first evening, the hotel restaurant served a welcome dinner with reindeer carpaccio, halibut and chocolate cake:
Then the time difference made itself felt and we tiredly retired into our rooms.