Jacob Nitter Sørensen after turbulent months: - It has been hard

You can listen to the entire podcast at the bottom of the article.

The sun shines above Nuup Kangerlua , where ice flakes drift quietly by.

You can listen to the entire podcast at the bottom of the article.

The sun shines above Nuup Kangerlua , where ice flakes drift quietly by.

From the view at the new one international airport in Nuuk – a large-scale investment in Greenland's future - reflects Air Greenland's director, Jacob Nitter Sørensen, over six months characterized by criticism, chaos and cancellations.

- It has been hard. I know what it means for both passengers and employees, he says.

Tuukkaq cancellation costs up to DKK 2.5 million. DKK

While the plane Tuukkaq lands without problems today, this has far from been the case in the past. As many as 32 Atlantic flights have either been canceled or forced to turn around this year about – with major financial consequences.

- We say that typically a day like this, when we either cancel Tuukkaq or turn around, then it costs everything from DKK 1 to 2.5 million, says Jacob Nitter Sørensen.

He emphasizes that The winter of 2025 has offered unusually bad weather throughout the country - not only in Nuuk.

- The days when we haven't been able to land with Tuukkaq, we haven't been able to land with either The Dash-8s. And it has not only been Nuuk - it has also been in Ilulissat and in Sisimiut. So I think it's a bit too cheap to say it's only trading about Tuukkaq, says the director.

“Everybody feels be de-prioritized"

Also helicopter traffic in North Greenland has been affected by technical problems, and some passengers have experienced delays of up to a month. The dissatisfaction can be felt.

- We will stay bombarded from all over Greenland with: "Now you have to invest extra in the north, or You must put in extra to the east or south.” But we do what we can - all of us feels low priority.

The criticism is especially evident on social media such as Facebook. However, he does not take the complaints so seriously.

– First of all I think that's kind of how social media is today. There is little suspense, some drama and so on. Of course people will write it. We must also just remember that in the past when you stranded in Kangerlussuaq and stayed housed in a sports hall – or if we didn't have enough rooms – then wrote you also talk about it on social media, says Jacob Nitter Sørensen.

Teacher of complaints

Some complaints bite firm though. One episode in particular from North Greenland in 2024 stands clearly in the memory.

- One of them, me remember best, is actually from North Greenland last year, where there was also really bad weather. Low clouds, fog... We haven't been able to fly for many days. So we start putting boats in.

But it turned out that be a bad solution.

- It is developing quite well unfortunate. They come out in bad weather, and some things happen on the boat as well relation to the technique. So the customers actually become quite insecure. They are coming forward of course, but there were some of the customers who called afterwards and told about the episode.

Since then, Air has Greenland tightened up on the use of boat transport as an alternative solution.

– Sometimes we are maybe a little too good to try to solve the problems at any cost. And there we have tightened up a lot around that with boat transport, he says.

Listen to the whole the podcast below, where Jacob Nitter Sørensen talks about his move from pilot to director, the announced fare increases and his thoughts on the future.