Nuuk Airport afterwards international flights to Greenland were limited to Kangerlussuaq Airport in central western Greenland, to the north of Nuuk, an airport inherited from the U.S. Air Force when the former Sondrestrom Air Base was handed over to the then home rule government on 30 September 1992. With the airport being limited to serving small planes, the possibilities for international connections remain limited. Reopening of the connection to Iqaluit Airport was considered by Air Greenland in late 2009, but was later postponed until at least 2011. In order to compete with Air Iceland, which operates services to Nuuk, Narsarsuaq, Ilulissat, and
Capital city prime economic, cultural, or intellectual centres of a nation or an empire are sometimes referred to as primate cities. Examples are Athens, Bangkok, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Cairo, London, Mexico City, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo. News media will often use the name of a capital city as an alternative name for the country of which it is the capital or of the government that is seated there, as a form of metonymy. For example, "relations between Washington and London" refer to "relations between the United States and the United Kingdom". The word "capital" derives from the Latin "caput" (genitive "capitis"),