More than 50 million passengers in 2016 – 50,802,801 passengers travelled via Avinor’s 46 airports last year. This is an increase of 1.6 per cent. In December, 5.3 per cent more passengers travelled by air than the corresponding month in 2015.
“Traffic growth continues, and we expect the same trend in 2017 as well. This shows how important aviation is for Norway.We are working on large projects to accommodate the demand and create good passenger experiences. This year Avinor will complete terminal expansions in Oslo and Bergen. We are also establishing a new control tower centre based on exciting, new technology. Moreover, we are expanding and building new facilities in Tromsø and Stavanger”, says CEO Dag Falk-Petersen.
Considerable growth in December
International traffic recorded the highest growth (9.6 per cent) in December, domestic traffic was up 3.1 per cent, while offshore traffic continues going down (-13.9 per cent).
Intercontinental traffic increased by an impressive 12.1 per cent. “The US in particular saw strong growth, with 36 per cent. This growth is associated with the routes from Oslo to Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Many Norwegians have travelled to the US for the Christmas holidays”, says Vice President Traffic Development at Avinor, Jasper Spruit.
Oslo Airport had the highest growth among Avinor’s airports, but there was also solid growth in Tromsø, Bodø and Trondheim. Stavanger and Bergen saw a small reduction.
New passenger record for Aviator and Oslo Airport in 2016
50.8 million passengers travelled via Avinor’s airports in 2016. There were big regional variations. 28 of Avinor’s airports recorded growth in 2016, while 18 saw a reduction. Growth was especially high in Oslo (4.5 per cent), Tromsø (4.8 per cent) and Bodø (3.9 per cent), while Stavanger was down by 6.8 per cent. There were only marginal changes in Trondheim (+1.5 per cent) and Bergen (-1.2 per cent).
Oslo Airport broke the 25 million passenger barrier Climbing above 25 million passengers for the first time, Oslo Airport ended up with almost 25.8 million passengers in 2016 (+4,5 per cent).
“New routes to Boston, Miami, Las Vegas, London Stansted and Vilnius have contributed to this growth, but there has also been growth for established routes such as Copenhagen, Alicante and Stockholm”, concludes Spruit.
Strong growth for Spain
In 2016, growth was strongest for flights to and from Spain, with 300,000 more passengers compared to 2015 (+13 per cent). The largest reduction was to and from Turkey, with 190,000 fewer passengers compared to 2015 (-28 per cent).
Source: Avinor / Norway Today
