The weather along the Greenlands west coast with low clouds and fog creates great challenges in getting customers to their destination these days. The weather forecast does not look too good and therefore Air Greenland has closed for the sale of airline tickets to and from the west coast for the rest of July. Tickets to and from Nerleriit Inaat are not affected.

Today, Monday 11 July, there are almost 1000 stranded passengers around the country who should have left during the weekend. Due to low clouds and fog along the coast and especially in Nuuk where the Dash-8 aircraft are based, has only been possible to implement the traffic programs later in the day, creating an accumulation of passengers and cargo. To address that challenge, Air Greenland has chosen to close for ticket sales for the reminder of July.

- Air Greenland is vulnerable at this time. We do not provide the service we have set out for, and we must therefore resort to closing the sale. That way, we can utilize the remaining capacity when delays occur. The fog and low clouds tease us so much that today's planned programs are postponed and when it happens several days in a row, we get a large accumulation of passengers, says Jacob Nitter Sørensen.

Most of the planes that will fly the passengers along the coast are based in Nuuk while a single plane is based in Ilulissat. Here, too, there has been dense fog lately. The planes must also be able to get home to the base to ensure their maintenance and when the weather forecast that they cannot, it affects the running of the traffic program. In addition, there is a shortage of accommodation.

- Air Greenland makes sure that the passengers who are out get an overnight stay, but even that is a big logistical challenge, as there is extremely limited accommodation capacity available. Our organization together with airport company Mittarfeqarfiit is pretty much under pressure on all fronts. We will therefore also encourage passengers to show patience, as our employees worked at high pressure to solve the challenges, but it is difficult when we cannot even get in the air, siger Jacob Nitter Sørensen and continues:

- The traffic challenges in Europe also mean that it is very difficult to find available capacity for rental on the Atlantic route. Air Greenland usually uses this option, but with i.e. strike in SAS, this possibility is extremely limited.

He states that Air Greenland will inform via the company's website and social media when there is extensive irregularity. Those passengers who lack a new itinerary will receive one when the work on a new itinerary has been completed.

- Right now, our employees are working on a huge puzzle, which must go up, but customers must not despair. There will be one as soon as a new plan has come. It’s up to the weather, the airplanes, and the crews whether it can succeed, says the CEO in the end.

July 11th 2022