Kristiansand Airport (; ) is an international airport serving Kristiansand Municipality in Agder county, Norway. The airport is located in the district of Tveit in the Oddernes borough, about by road and by air from the center of town of Kristiansand. Operated by the state-owned Avinor, it is the sole airport in Southern Norway with scheduled flights. It has a runway aligned 03/21 and served 1,061,130 passengers in 2018. Scheduled flights are provided by Scandinavian Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Widerøe, KLM Cityhopper and Wizz Air. The Royal Norwegian Air Force has a training center at the airport. It opened on 1 June 1939, as the joint second airport in the country. During the Second World War it was occupied and expanded by the Luftwaffe. Kristiansand's southerly location caused the airport to receive several international routes during the early years, as well as domestic services. Braathens SAFE served domestic services from 1955 to its demise in 2004. KLM flew until 1971, after which Dan-Air opened routes to the United Kingdom. The terminal received major extensions in 1955, 1979, 1994 and 2015. New control towers were built in 1966 and 2013. It was the base for Sørfly from 1946 to 1962, for Agderfly from 1969 to 2004, and for FlyNonstop in 2013. History Construction The first airport in Kristiansand was a water aerodrome situated in the city center. It was built by the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service in 1918. A government commission recommended on 21 October 1920 that Kristiansand receive a water airport as part of a nationwide investment program. However, nothing came of the plans for more than a decade. Moving of the military water aerodrome was proposed several times, although this was never carried out before the construction of Kjevik. Locally the initiative for an airport in Kristiansand was launched by Mayor Andreas Kjær in 1933. The city council sent a formal application to the government in August 1934 asking for an airport. That summer Widerøe commenced flights to Kristiansand along a coastal route from Oslo to Haugesund. Norwegian Air Lines (DNL) commenced a coastal seaplane route along the southern coast from Oslo to Bergen via Kristiansand on 9 June 1935. This service used an aerodrome at Kongsgårdbukta. The government stated in 1935 that it planned on building a main airport for Agder – Kristiansand, Mandal and Arendal were all proposed as suitable hosts. The government concluded that Kristiansand