Founded in 1916, Runavík has an important port, originally used predominantly by fishing boats but now also a key supply base for the North Sea oil industry as well as a trans-shipment port for freight to and from Europe.

[2] The harbour underwent development in the late 1990s[3] and can now accommodate cruise ships.

A massive infrastructure project has been mounted to build an 11 km-long sub-sea tunnel between Runavík and Tórshavn,[4] thereby significantly reducing travel times to the capital.

[7] In 2014 all political parties of the Faroese parliament agreed on how and when to build the Eysturoyartunnilin and the Sandoyartunnilin.

The first step in the projects was to fill out a platform of land in the sea at Saltnes near Runavík for the Eysturoy-tunnel.