ESNQ - Kiruna Airport

Introduction

Kiruna Airport is Sweden’s northernmost airport and is situated around 9 km from the city centre. On a regular basis SAS and Norwegian flies daily, connecting Kiruna with Stockholm. During the winter the airport sees numerous charter flights with passengers wanting to see the northern lights and most likely the famous Ice Hotel as well.

Due to its location in northern Sweden with its cold climate and the fact that the airspace around is quite calm, it makes it a popular airport for scientific research. NASA, Boeing and Airbus are some of the regular visitors when testing new airframes or technology.

Charts and briefing

Remember to bring charts in the cockpit, they can be found free of charge at the Swedish AIP.

Radar coverage around Kiruna has previously been poor and the airspace below FL100 has therefore only been under procedural control. However, recently Kiruna airport started using something called WAM (Wide Area Multilateration) which means that we can now see you on our scope. Vectoring is allowed down to 5000ft but we will be able to see you all the way down. Even though we are able to give vectors, expect to fly the full procedure via KRA or OP.

With the above in mind, please make sure that you as a pilot are familiar to join and fly approaches without vectoring by the controller all the way down to the ILS.

IFR Departure:

Pilots can expect to be given departure information and clearance according their flight planned route to FL150. Squawk code is given during taxi.

If you are not following a SID, remember that minimum turning altitude is 2800ft for both runways.

IFR Arrival:

Expect to be cleared by ESOS-K into Kiruna via STAR.

VFR Traffic

Departing and arriving traffic can expect to be cleared in or out of the control zone 6 (six) different visual exit/entry points. These points are found in the AIP chart ESNQ-6-1.

Depending on traffic you might not get clearance to enter the control zone at once. If you are not cleared to enter the control zone, remain in uncontrolled airspace until clearance is received by the controller.

Parking Procedures

Scheduled airline traffic is normally parked at stand 1-3. Cargo flights in front of hangar 2 or 3. General aviation is normally parked between hangar 1 and 2.

Pushback is not required.