Uppsala county came to the conclusion after a two year environmental review of the Armed Forces-owned airport’s suitability to handle commercial flights.

“This is naturally a historic moment where we conclude that the conditions in place are in accordance with the operations that the company plans to conduct,” Mattias Sjölund at Uppsala Airport AB said in a statement on Friday.

According to the county decision, dated March 17th, the airport is cleared to handle a maximum of 23,400 civil flight movements (take offs and landings) per annum. The airport is also licensed to handle a maximum of 4,300 military flight movements.

The board states that it has listened to broad criticism from local residents and environmental groups over the new commercial airport and the Armed Forces have been instructed to install noise mitigation barriers to protect the 60 homes affected in the vicinity.

The application to the county was submitted in 2008 by the Armed Forces who had the intention to sell part of the airport to Uppsala Airport AB in order to reduce their own costs for the use of Ärna.

Uppsala municipality voted to approve the application on May 25th 2009 by 44 votes to 37.

Friday’s decision was taken by the Uppsala county Environmental Testing Delegation which is responsible for deciding on permits for environmentally hazardous activities. The decision can now be appealed to the government.

With the left-green opposition having stated that if in power they would reject the application, the outcome of the autumn general election will have a direct bearing on the future of commercial air traffic at Uppsala-Ärna.

Uppsala Airport AB told local newspaper UNT.se that they hope to launch commercial flights in the spring of 2011 with possible destinations including Frankfurt, Paris and Spanish cities.

Ärna airport was founded in 1943 as a military airfield and is located 75 kilometres north of Stockholm and 40 kilometres north of the main Stockholm Arlanda airport.