International flights to Greenland resumed on Thursday after security issues at the island’s newest airport led to cancellations earlier in the week.
On Tuesday, a United flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Nuuk Airport turned around after Greenland’s government determined there were deficiencies in Nuuk’s passenger screening process, leading to a two-day suspension of all international flights. United began offering direct flights between Newark and Nuuk in June.
Since opening to international flights a few months ago, Nuuk Airport has struggled with delays and cancellations as operations expand to serve the increasing numbers of tourists traveling to the snow-swept island that lies fewer than 1,500 miles from Maine.
“The demand has probably been a little bit higher than expected, and with a new airport, there are always going to be some implementation issues, some bumps in the road,” said Jacob Nitter Sorensen, the chief executive of Air Greenland, which operates out of the airport.
Mr. Sorensen added that weather this summer has been particularly challenging. Couple that with staffing shortages and it makes “a perfect storm,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Danish Transport Authority found that Nuuk’s staff had not been adequately trained in screening international travelers, according to a statement from Greenland Airports, which operates the airport.
As a result, screening was suspended and international flights were canceled. Domestic flights were not affected.
Flights resumed on Thursday after security officers from Denmark arrived to screen passengers, according to Greenland Airports. Greenland is an autonomous region within the Kingdom of Denmark.
United Airlines said it would resume a normal schedule — two flights per week in each direction — on Aug. 30. Passengers affected by the cancellations were encouraged to apply for a travel waiver to avoid change fees and fare differentials.
Efforts were also underway to ensure airport staff will be able to conduct screening in the future, according to Greenland Airports.
Before Nuuk Airport opened in November, the only two airports where large planes could land in Greenland were on American military bases, said Carina Ren, a professor and tourism researcher at Aalborg University in Denmark.
Now travel interest in Greenland, which has been in the geopolitical spotlight in recent months, is growing.
But with fewer than 60,000 residents, Greenland has struggled at times to meet the demands of tourism, mainly because it needs a larger work force, Ms. Ren said.
One United flight on Aug. 3 was delayed for three hours because of staffing shortages. An anonymous Reddit poster claimed that the shortage was because workers chose to go reindeer hunting instead of showing up for work — a rumor that spread quickly online and culminated in a number of headlines. United did not respond to a request for comment about the rumor.
Ms. Ren noted that such rumors played into Greenlandic stereotypes. Mr. Sorensen added that staff who had the weekend off were likely hunting, and couldn’t readily come in to work on an emergency basis. And while reindeer hunting is important in Greenland, Ms. Ren said, the real issue was “connected to a very concrete problem, which is basically the lack of hands everywhere in Greenland.”
Greenland needs an additional 1,000 people in its work force — a number that will likely have to come from imported labor, a new phenomenon on the island, Ms. Ren said.
For now, United will continue its direct flights to Nuuk until Sept. 25, when the seasonal service is scheduled to end. United announced earlier this week that it will offer direct flights to Nuuk again next summer.
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Claire Fahy reports on New York City and the surrounding area for The Times.
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