Skien Airport, Geiteryggen (; ) is a regional airport located at Geiteryggen, southwest of the city center of Skien, Norway. Owned by Skien Municipality, it was last served by Widerøe with daily flights to Bergen. The runway is and numbered 01–19. The airport had 33,080 passengers in 2014 and has Grenland and the southern part of Telemark as its catchment area. The airport was built with a gravel runway in 1952. Fjellfly was the first airline based at the airport, which from 1963 to 1972 flew scheduled services to Oslo. An extension of the runway to was carried out in 1970s. Norving had a base at Geiteryggen from 1976, which was taken over by Norsk Air in 1988. A major upgrade, including expanding the runway to the current length and building the current terminal, took place in the mid-1980s. Norsk Air withdrew in 1993, resulting in several airlines flying from the airport; Coast Aero Center, Teddy Air, Coast Air, Air Stord and Sun Air of Scandinavia all operated various services during the late 1980s and 1990s. The airport closed in 2002, but was reopened in 2004 when Vildanden was established. It gradually introduced four domestic and international services before folding in 2011. History Establishment The first aircraft to visit Skien was an air show held by Pierre Chanteloup at Gråtenmoen in Solum in 1914. Other aviators used Gråtenmoen for flights from 1918. The first plans for a permanent airport in Grenland was proposed by Norsk Hydro in 1928, during the planning of their industrial facility at Herøya. At a meeting in on 12 January 1934, hosted by Skien Chamber of Commerce, Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, chief aviator in the newly established Norwegian Air Lines, recommended that an airport be built in Skien. The lecture spurred municipal and commercial interest in an airport, and within days there were carried out investigations of possible sites, notably Gråtenmoen, Vallermyrene and Geiteryggen. The municipal lot at Gråtenmoen was selected by the appointed municipal airport committee. Engineer Grøndahl designed a proposal for the airport, which included three runways: a long main runway, and two crosswind runways. The plans were completed in January 1935 and in 1936 the airport committee held meetings with among others Minister of Labor Ole Monsen Mjelde. By 1936 the Aviation Council was brought into the discussions, and they recommended that the airport be located at Skogplassene. This was opposed by local politicians, who