It is 5 km (3.1 mi) northwest of Longyearbyen on the west coast, and is the northernmost airport in the world with scheduled public flights.

However, these aircraft never landed until 9 February 1959, when a resident had become seriously ill and needed to be flown to mainland Norway for treatment.

The mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani cleared the runway at Adventsdalen and the 14-hour flight and landing were successful.

The first jet plane to land in Adventdalen was a Fred Olsen Flyselskap Dassault Falcon 20, LN-FOI.

The landing was in 1971, and the aircraft brought in 1700 lbs of mail and passengers, picking up a geological survey party.

But the Soviets also needed an airport to serve their settlements at Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and by the early 1970s, an understanding was reached between the two countries.

Braathens SAFE continued to fly charter flights for the Norwegian coal mining company, Store Norske.

Among the guests on board was King Olav V, but thick fog at Longyearbyen forced the airplane to return.

On 1 September, a Fokker F-27 from Braathens SAFE was used to calibrate the runways; on board were pilots from SAS and Aeroflot to learn about the landing conditions.

In addition to the scheduled services, Store Norske chartered cargo flights from Fred Olsen Air Transport.

[11][12] The company signed an agreement with the Norwegian Coast Guard to have a Partenavia Spartacus plane stationed at Longyearbyen for fishery surveillance.

[14] On 14 August 1987, Braathens SAFE re-entered the market, flying in parallel with SAS to Tromsø and Oslo.

Finnair announced plans to begin flights from Helsinki in summer 2016, but Norwegian authorities did not allow this route as it was not in bilateral agreement on air traffic between Finland and Norway.

[26] The airport is located 1.6 nautical miles (3.0 km; 1.8 mi) northwest of Longyearbyen, the largest settlement on Svalbard.

[28] Taxis, rental cars and airport coaches are also available[29] (a shuttle bus operates to hotels and guesthouses in Longyearbyen and Nybyen).

[30] The runway is 2,483 metres (8,146 ft) long and aligned 10/28 (roughly east–west), equipped with an instrument landing system, but there are no taxiways.

[1] The 45 metres (148 ft) wide runway has two culverts that allow water from the mountain Platåberget to drain under it.

The airline flies several weekly trips to Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben on behalf of Kings Bay with research personnel.

[40] On behalf of the Norwegian Coast Guard, Lufttransport flies about 400 hours annual of aerial surveillance.

[citation needed] The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located a few miles south of the airport.