Nuuk Airport unable to service large airliners or flights reaching Denmark or other countries. In connection with events are chartered aircraft or VIP flights unable to reach Nuuk. A change to a small local aircraft (normally at Kangerlussuaq Airport) is always needed. A large expansion of the airport has been controversial due to the approach near the urbanized area of the outlying districts of Nuuk, although the issue continues to be a subject of internal debate in Greenland. In the early 1960s, after the establishment of Air Greenland on 7 November 1960 as Grønlandsfly, Nuuk was served exclusively by the PBY Catalina
Nuuk Airport between Kangerlussuaq and Nuuk, using planes much smaller than the charter planes, often requiring a hotel night in Kangerlussuaq. Nuuk airport has one asphalt runway (05/23) above sea level. The airport terminal and apron are built on a levelled platform on an undulating slope under the Quassussuaq mountain, with the runway platform artificially elevated to compensate for the scarp immediately to the west. The runway platform bed is composed of broken rock and rubble, topped with gravel, and protected by a low, wooden fence. The northern end of the runway is less than from the shore of Nuup Kangerlua fjord.