Svalbard Airport — Local services in Spitsbergen

Svalbard airport is certainly one of the smallest in the world, I might have been on smaller airports in the Andes or some tiny airports in Norway might also be smaller. To walk from one site of the building to the other takes a max. of 3 minutes. However, experiences are dramatically changing on that small space. I did not had emptied my water bottle entirely so it could have been confiscated and destroyed but the friendly person on duty let me drink the rest and keep the water bottle. I had also some highly specific lithium batteries in my check-in luggage that are difficult to replace. I later read in the latest IATA rules that those batteries could be transported in hand luggage but not in check in luggage anymore (I landed and departed with those batteries in my check in luggage before on Svalbard for four times and have read the IATA rules in several years as I travelled with instruments to India and Chile) but did not read the latest update. They were removed from my luggage and destroyed although I waited for 1 hour the boarding of the plane in the neighbouring room. Calling for me would have been the easiest and it would have been a learning lecture not only for me but also for other 200 waiting passenger.

I also saw a person that had lost her passport on Svalbard - poor woman. The check in was on Saturday, when the police office in Longyearbyen is closed, there is no embassy or consulate in Svalbard to recover the passport, so her situation would not change in decades. Her life was not easy to get on her plane, while she informed me later that the arrival at Gardemoen in Oslo was easy/peasy in comparison.

I always say if you want to escape civilization and bureaucracy you end on Svalbard or in Alaska, now I experienced if you can't get enough of it and rather follow bureaucracy instead of using empathy and communication as a tool, you also end up...

Svalbard Airport, Longyear is the main airport serving Svalbard in Norway. It is located 1.6 nm northwest of Longyearbyen, and it is the northernmost airport in the world with public scheduled flights. Really small but functional. Has free WiFi. For 4 or more people, taxis are much better and cheaper than the bus (60 NOK each). In fact, the only one bus from the airport to Longyearbyen and from the town to the airport. The bus is outside the Arrivals terminal waiting for passengers of each flight arriving there. Luggage is to be put in luggage compartments of the bus. One way ticket costs 75 NOK (about 10 USD) to be paid to the driver, cash or major credit cards. It takes about 10 minutes maximum to the town. The bus does several stops on its way (Svalbard museum, Radisson Blu hotel). Same to the airport, 2 hours before the flight (from Radisson Blu hotel) it collects people on several...

It is non sense not to be warned that even if the bag is not in the carry on I can't have my power bank.

Just checked my backpack, tried to find my power bank and found this paper talking about "dangerous gods" instead of "dangerous goods". I didn't bring Odin, Thor and Loki with me and don't like this patronising tone from people who could have sent an email (it was registered to the booking of the ticket, after all) while they can't write an important message properly. And if I could do Tromso-Longyearbyan with that powerbank in the bag I registered, I don't know why I couldn't do the other way around. I didn't find that powerbank in the island after paying 80 euros to the...