FLUG REVUE September 2004: Oslo Gardermoen is a Nordic hub

OSLO GARDERMOEN – A NORTHERN HUB

By Dierk Wünsche

Out of 45 airports in Norway, Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) international airport is the hub. Last year it handled about 13.6 million passengers, up 1.8 percent on the previous year's figures. This upswing is due largely to low-cost airlines Norwegian, Sterling and Nordic Airlink, which between them carried around 16 percent of all Oslo's passengers in December 2003 alone. As many as 14.1 million passengers are expected at Gardermoen airport this year. The airport is designed for a total capacity of 17 million passengers per year. 600 flight movements and 40,000 travellers are handled on an average day. The busiest times for departures are between 6am and 9am in the morning and between 3pm and 6pm in the afternoon.

Oslo Gardermoen

Situated some 50km to the north of the city centre, the terminal building that was opened in 1998 for scheduled and charter traffic also serves as a land side hub in the Norwegian transport system. As well as a shuttle train in the direction of the city centre, all the Norwegian intercity and long-distance trains stop at the railway platforms below the terminal, offering rail services to Skien, Oslo, Lillehammer and Trondheim. A total of 150 trains stop at this station every day. On top of this, 550 buses, 3,000 taxis and 22,000 private cars head for the airport every day. Even so, 65 percent of passengers travel to the airport by public transport, 40 percent by train and 25 percent by bus.

After a stagnant period in Scandinavia in 2003, the Oslo traffic figures started rising again significantly in the first quarter of 2004. Thus, in March 2004 the airport registered its highest growth in passenger traffic since the new terminal was opened in 1998. Some 1.2 million passengers passed through Gardermoen in March, up 11 percent on the same month of 2003. Of this, international traffic grew the strongest, by 15.7%, while domestic traffic notched up a more modest 7.8% growth. The route to Stockholm registered the highest growth, at 27.9 percent, followed by Ålesund with 14.7 percent. After Trondheim, the ten most popular routes from Oslo in the first quarter of 2004 were Bergen, Copenhagen, Stavanger, Stockholm, London, Tromsø, Amsterdam, Bodø and Ålesund.

When one considers that this country, which is not a member of the EU, has a population of only 4.5 million, at first glance the high passenger numbers at Oslo appear quite surprising. Jo Kobro, Information Manager at Oslo Lufthavn AS, a state-owned company, explained the reasons for the high level of air traffic in this affluent kingdom in an interview with FLUG REVUE. “The geographical layout of the country means that air transport is often the only means available of reliably supplying the regions with goods or of transporting passengers, especially in the long winter months. If one were to rotate the landmass of Norway southwards with Oslo as the axis of rotation, the northern tip would extend as far as Sicily. With distances like that in the country, you can understand that air transport is extremely important to the economy and the mobility of the population. Half of all the domestic air traffic passes through the hub of Oslo, which connects the regions.”

But the airport also serves an important function as regards transportation to its neighbour states and also for global connections. As Kobro explains, “Gardermoen links Norway to the other Scandinavian capital cities of Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. From Copenhagen airport, passengers can avail themselves of the global long-haul network of Star Alliance member SAS. Other hubs for world-wide traffic to and from Scandinavia via Oslo are the airports in London and Amsterdam. We are especially proud of our new daily non-stop service to New York (Newark Liberty International Airport), operated by Continental Airlines. This has been flown since 18 July with a Boeing 757. In this respect, we see ourselves very much as competing with Copenhagen airport, as the management of Continental Airlines chose Oslo airport over the Danish hub. The pure flying time from the more northerly Oslo is now around seven hours. This flight is our only non-stop scheduled transatlantic connection. A few years ago there was another direct connection to the USA. Northwest Airlines provided a service to Minneapolis, but unfortunately it was discontinued. From Newark, there are plenty of transit connections that can take passengers into the domestic American network.”

Commenting on the extreme importance of the American market to Norway, Kobro explains that due to the waves of emigration, more people of Norwegian origin live in the USA today than in Norway. Apart from SAS Braathens, the other international airlines with services from Oslo airport are Finnair, KLM, Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Spanair, CSA, LOT, Icelandair, Aeroflot, Estonian, Lithuanian and PIA. Handling at Oslo Gardermoen is carried out by SAS and Serviceair.

The low-cost carriers act as an important engine of growth for passenger numbers at Oslo airport. They are opening up the airways to target groups which previously did not fly or only a little. Thus, for example, Norwegian provides services to the capital cities of Berlin (SXF), London (STN) and Budapest (BUD) as well as to the destinations of Pisa (PSA), Dubrovnik (DBV) and Sardinia (OLB). Sterling is active on routes to southern Europe, Basiq Air provides a service to Rotterdam, and Germanwings flies to Cologne/Bonn. As Kobro explains, “It is not just holidaymakers who use these connections. Among Norwegian business travellers it has become a real 'sport' finding out about the cheapest possible flights and then using them for their business trips.”

Especially among the no-frills airlines, short turnarounds and on-time handling are quite critical. This is no easy task in the extreme weather conditions of Norway. “Naturally,” he says, “we are very proud of the fact that Oslo airport is one of the most punctual in Europe. In 2001 and 2002 we were actually the most punctual airport. In 2003, we were still the third most punctual. You need to bear in mind that during the winter months we have to cope with snow and frost conditions. On top of that, the airport lies on a ground water reservoir. That means that we have to observe the most stringent environmental regulations in the world. This is especially noticeable when it comes to de-icing aircraft with glycol. Every contamination incident identified is punished with a fine of around €300,000. Despite that, we always manage to clear a runway within 15 minutes, which is very impressive.”

In the cargo sector, over 80,000 tonnes are handled every year at Oslo airport. The most important commodity transported is fresh Norwegian salmon. The main freight airlines that use Oslo are SAS, DHL, UPS, TNT and Korean Air, which flies to Oslo twice a week with a Boeing 747 cargo plane. One special feature is a weekly Aeroflot flight carrying freshly caught fish to Japan.

In view of the rising passenger numbers, the airport is already thinking about expansion. As Jo Kobro explains, “In about five years' time we will have to think properly about expanding the airport. Plots for a terminal B and a terminal C are already reserved, so the capacity to handle 35 million passengers per year exists. However, the political decision-makers have not yet agreed to a third runway. As far as we are concerned, we would like to develop some long-haul connections. Possible destinations are the booming cities of Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai. But SAS will probably want to run its long-haul routes independently from Copenhagen once it has been reorganised into national units (SAS Braathens in Norway), so that this will be difficult to achieve.”

From page 68 of FLUG REVUE 9/2004

Last updated 16 August 2004

FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany