Construction The first airport in Kristiansand was a
water aerodrome situated in the city center. It was built by the
Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service in 1918. A government commission recommended on 21 October 1920 that Kristiansand receive a water airport as part of a nationwide investment program. However, nothing came of the plans for more than a decade. Moving of the military water aerodrome was proposed several times, although this was never carried out before the construction of Kjevik. Locally, the initiative for an airport in Kristiansand was launched by Mayor
Andreas Kjær in 1933. The city council sent a formal application to the government in August 1934, asking for an airport. That summer Widerøe commenced flights to Kristiansand along a coastal route from
Oslo to
Haugesund.
Norwegian Air Lines (DNL) commenced a coastal seaplane route along the southern coast from
Oslo to
Bergen via Kristiansand on 9 June 1935. This service used an aerodrome at Kongsgårdbukta. The government stated in 1935 that it planned on building a main airport for Agder – Kristiansand,
Mandal and
Arendal were all proposed as suitable hosts. The government concluded that Kristiansand was the most suitable, based on traffic, military and financial considerations. Several locations were considered. Kongsgårdbakken was selected, costing 2 million
Norwegian krone (NOK) less than Kjevik. The municipality and the state formalized construction in April 1936, where the former would provide the land and the construction costs of NOK 2.4 million would be split. Construction commenced soon afterwards. Meanwhile, a group started looking at Kjevik as a suitable site, led by aviator
Bernt Balchen, industrialist Rolf Petersen and Lawyer Hartmann. They presented detailed plans and agreed prices for purchase of lands. Based on this Kristiansand Municipal Council accepted on 5 August 1936 to reconsider Kjevik. Kjevik was passed in the council on 30 September 1937 with 34 against 26 votes. Construction commenced in November and was contracted to Høyer-Ellefsen. The same year the
Norwegian Army Air Service used the fields at Kjevik for training.
Second World War Kjevik was captured by the
Luftwaffe during the
German invasion on the 9th of April, 1940. The first aircraft landed at Kjevik as an emergency landing on the first day of the invasion. Later it was used by
Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft, flying troops in. Luftwaffe immediately started upgrading the aerodrome. They began by removing a hill at the east end of the runway, followed by an extension of the runway. Tveit was transformed with military structures built throughout the village. In the east a minefield was laid and several fuel tanks were built around the airfield. Two large hangars were built, along with a large number of sheds. The Air Force's Aircraft-Technical School and the Weapon-Technical School moved to Kjevik in February 1946. The latter moved to
Lista Air Station two years later. The upgraded facilities resulted in Kristiansand Municipality wanting to rid itself of the responsibility and cost of running the airport. The city council passed a resolution of 9 December 1946 offering the airport free of charge to the state. This was approved by Parliament on 20 June 1947. On 6 March 1946 KLM resumed its route, flying from Oslo via Kristiansand to Amsterdam using a
Douglas DC-3. By 1950 it was flown three times a week, and continued onwards to
Brussels. DNL, through the
Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) cooperation started an international route on 2 October 1946 from Oslo via Kristiansand, Amsterdam and Brussels to
Paris. Four days later a domestic Ju 52 seaplane route started from Kristiansand to Stavanger, Haugesund and Bergen. Danish Air Lines introduced a route from Kjevik to
Aalborg and Copenhagen in 1947. DNL started a land plane route from Kristiansand to Stavanger in 1947, but withdrew two years later, The terminal building was expanded in 1953, receiving a new waiting room and a new cafeteria. Sørfly—the first airline based in Agder—was established in 1946. It operated out of Kjevik, originally with the
Auster Autocrats. They performed various
general aviation tasks, including sight-seeing, charter flights for hunters, especially to
Setesdal and
aerial photography. A
Republic Seabee and a
Miles Gemini were delivered in 1947 and 1948. The airline launched a scheduled route from Stavanger and Kristiansand via Ålborg to
Gothenburg. The airline's hangar at Kjevik collapsed in 1954 and the Seabee sold in 1956. From then the airline had less and less activity and liquidated in 1962. Braathens resumed traffic on 6 June 1955 when it opened a route from Oslo via
Tønsberg, Kristiansand and
Farsund to Stavanger, with a daily round trip on a
de Havilland Heron. These were replaced with the larger
Fokker F27 Friendship in 1959. The route served 2,593 passengers the first year, increasing to 17,900 in 1960. Braathens opened a route from Kristiansand to Ålborg in 1960, although this was taken over by SAS the following year. KLM introduced the
Vickers Viscount on the Kjevik route in 1957 and three years later started using the
Lockheed L-188 Electra. The Weapon Technical School moved back to Kjevik in 1963.
Dan-Air introduced summer services to
Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1963, expanded to an all-year service from 1972.
Boeing 737-200 that met an accident at Kristiansand in 1977 New aircraft resulted in the need for a longer runway. The city and the state made an agreement whereby the former would pay for the land while the latter would pay for the construction. The runway was extended to in 1966. On 2 November a new, tall
control tower opened. KLM introduced the
Douglas DC-9 on the Amsterdam route from 1966. However, the stopped serving Kristiansand from November 1971, when the stop was moved to Gothenburg. Dan-Air introduced a service to London in 1976. In the late 1970s the terminal was too small, resulting in the airport opening a new terminal on 22 March 1979, costing NOK 19 million. The terminal from the war had been used for domestic services and was converted to cargo terminal. The international terminal was converted to a terminal for the Air Force. Two years later they received permission to fly to
Bremen Airport, but ultimately shut down on 21 November 1991. The flight school continued to operate. SAS was reorganized in 1990 and the Copenhagen routes were taken over by
SAS Commuter's Eurolink service with new
Fokker 50 aircraft.
Norsk Air introduced a service from
Sandefjord Airport, Torp via Kristiansand to
London Stansted Airport on 28 October 1991. The route had insufficient traffic and was terminated the following year. The airport served 578,373 passengers in 1990, which increased to 745,061 passengers five years later. Following SAS terminating the Copenhagen service on 26 March 1994,
Maersk Air introduced three daily flights to Copenhagen. That year the terminal was rebuilt and expanded with another . Most of this was expansion of the public areas, including a new baggage area. KLM returned to Kristiansand on 28 March 1999, introducing flights to Amsterdam using a
Fokker 50 three times per day. By 2000 Maersk Air had replaced its F50s with jet aircraft on the Copenhagen route. The airport's patronage peaked at 902,295 in 1999, after which the ridership fell and did not recoup until 2011. Also as a result of the merger,
SAS Commuter took over Norwegian's routes to Stavanger and Bergen on 1 April 2003. The same year SAS resumed its route to Copenhagen, matching Maersk Air with three daily flights. The following year Maersk Air introduced flights to
Billund Airport in Denmark. The airline ceased operations the following year. Braathens merged into
SAS Braathens in 2004, and resumed as Scandinavian Airlines from 2007. Norwegian returned to Kjevik in 2007 as a
low-cost carrier with three weekly flights to
London Stansted Airport. However, the route proved to have too little patronage and was closed within the year. However, they introduced three daily flights to Oslo from 5 June 2008, adding to the four daily flights flown by SAS. Widerøe took over SAS Commuters flights to Bergen and Stavanger in 2010. Avinor installed a long section of
engineered materials arrestor system at the end of each runway in 2012. Kjevik is the only airport in Norway with this system, as the proximity to vulnerable marine environment prohibits the creation of a conventional safety zone around the runways. The south end was installed in July and the north end later in the year. The installations cost between 70 and 80 million
Norwegian krone. The control tower from 1966 was not sufficiently high to give the
air traffic controllers full view of the runway. A new tall control tower was therefore opened on 3 June 2013.
FlyNonstop was established as a Kjevik-based airline and commenced flights on 25 April 2013. They flew to ten sun and city holiday destinations using an
Embraer 190 operated by
Denim Air. With insufficient
passenger load factor, they went bankrupt on 29 October.
Wizz Air started a route to
Gdańsk using an
Airbus A320 in May 2013, mostly targeting the Polish expatriate community. Construction of a new international terminal commenced in 2014, scheduled for opening in June 2015. It will consist of a extension of the terminal northwards. It will feature four new gates, of which two can be used for flights out of the
Schengen Area. The baggage hall and
duty-free shop will be expanded. Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik is situated on the grounds of the farm Kjevik at Tveit in Kristiansand, Norway. The asphalt runway physically measures and is numbered 03/21. In addition it features a
engineered materials arrestor system at each end. The departure hall features a kiosk from the same chain and a
duty free store. The latter also serves arriving international passengers. The airport has six gates, numbered 1 through 7. The first three can be used for international flights, with gate 3 able to also handle domestic flights, when it is numbered 4. The last three only handle domestic flights. None of the gates have
jetbridges.
Ground handling is provided by
Aviator and
SAS Ground Handling, while
aviation fuel is provided by
Shell. ==Airlines and destinations==