It is operated by the state-owned Avinor and handled 145,396 passengers in 2014, making it the third-busiest regional airport in the country.

Services were interrupted by World War II, but resumed in 1945, lasting until the 1963 opening of Alta Airport.

Because of the limited space for expansion and unfavorable wind conditions, there is a proposal to build a new airport at Grøtnes.

[3] DNL resumed the Hammerfest route in 1946, connecting the town to Tromsø, Vadsø, and Kirkenes with a Junkers Ju 52.

[6] At the same time the government was working on plans to build a national network of short take-off and landing airport.

These were all originally served using Widerøe's de Havilland Canada Twin Otter aircraft.

[12] Helikopter Service established a helicopter base at Hammerfest Airport in 1989 to serve the offshore petroleum industry which was searching for oil in the Barents Sea.

[13] The routes eastwards were made subject to public service obligations with the Ministry of Transport and Communications from 1 April 1997.

[14] The helicopter operations were taken over by Norsk Helikpoter (later renamed Bristow Norway) when they opened their base on 11 November 2004.

[15] Hammerfest was the second airport to receive SCAT-I, a Global Positioning System-based landing system, when it was installed in 2007.

[16] SCAT-I allows aircraft with the system installed to make a safer and less fuel-consuming landings using a gliding instead of step-down approach.

[19] The main route at Hammerfest is Widerøe's service to Tromsø, which is operated up to eight times per day using Dash 8-100/Q200 aircraft.

Widerøe also operates flights eastwards to other communities in Finnmark on public service obligations with the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

One of the Super Pumas is used for search and rescue operations for the petroleum industry and when the Royal Norwegian Air Force's Westland Sea Kings based at Station Group Banak are not available, for instance if they are on another mission or the aircraft are being maintained.

[25] Avinor is considering building a new airport at Grøtnes, which would be built as reclaimed land 15 kilometers (9 mi) from Hammerfest.

The report concluded that the latter could allow for three daily direct flights to Oslo, and estimated the 2013 traffic, if airport had been built, at 190,000, of which 99,000 would have been generated by the petroleum industry.

[26] A report by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute the same year concluded that the weather at Grøtnes was well-suited for an airport.

[28] Instead Avinor recommends improving the road to Alta airport (138 kilometers (86 mi) driving distance).

[29] A part of this route (E6 at Sennalandet) is sensitive to snow storms, causing risk of missed flights.