Calls for referendum on future of Reykjavik Airport
Reykjavik Airport has been located in Vatnsmýri for seventy years. Photo: Iceland Monitor/Árni Sæberg
The Icelandic people may be given a referendum to decide on the fate of Reykjavik City Airport , current located in the Vatnsmýri district of the capital .
A cross-party group of MPs are planning to put forward a draft parliamentary resolution allowing a popular vote on keeping the airport at its current location or moving operations elsewhere.
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Reykjavik City Airport (RKV) is currently the centre of Iceland’s domestic and medical flight service operations. According to current local development plans for Reykjavik, the airport is due to be removed by 2024, and this summer one of the two runways was closed .
The airport is currently the hub of domestic flights within Iceland. Photo: Iceland Monitor/Brynjar Gauti
“It is important to get cross-political consensus on the future of Reykjavik Airport,” says Þorsteinn Sæmundsson , one of the MPs moving the resolution.
“This issues concerns everybody, wherever we are on the political spectrum or wherever we live in Iceland. We need to get a final and meaningful decision on whether Reykjavik Airport should continue to be the centre of Iceland’s medical flight service operations or whether it should go.”
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Although running the referendum alongside the upcoming general elections on 29 October would be desirable, the constitutional arrangements required for organising a referendum in Iceland mean that it is now too late for that to be achieved.
