Vágar Airport
airport in the Faroe Islands
Vágar Airport (Faroese: Vága Floghavn) (IATA: FAE, ICAO: EKVG) is the only airport in the Faroe Islands, and is located 1 NM (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) east of the village of Sørvágur, on the island of Vágar and 46 km (29 miles) west of the capital Tórshavn. It is the main operating base for Faroese flag carrier Atlantic Airways.
History
Early years
The airport was built by British Army Royal Engineers during World War II on the island of Vágar; the site was known as RAF Vagar/Vaagar (Royal Air Force). The site was chosen mainly because it was hard to see from the surrounding waters and any potential German warship. The first aeroplane landed here in Autumn 1942. (See British occupation of the Faroe Islands in World War II). British engineers had similarly first built Reykjavík Airport in Iceland in 1940, then known as RAF Reykjavik, following the British Occupation of Iceland.
After the war, Vágar airfield was abandoned and left unused until 1963, when it was reopened as a civilian airport at the initiative of two Sørvágur residents, Hugo Fjørðoy and Lars Larsen. The two worked with the Icelandic airline Icelandair, which began the scheduled flights to Bergen, Copenhagen and Glasgow using a Douglas DC-3 aircraft. In 1964 a separate airline, Faroe Airways, operated flights, first using chartered aircraft but in 1965 they bought a DC-3 from the Swedish airline Linjeflyg.
“Vágar Airport” enters the record as airport in the Faroe Islands. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Vágar, Airport and airport can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Vágar Airport” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Vágar, Airport and airport provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q371471. Authority coordinates are 62.064, -7.277. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1940, 1963 and 1964.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Vágar Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Vágar Airport primary sources, Vágar Airport archive and Vágar research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Vágar Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.