International traffic at Avinor airports increased by 4.7 per cent, while domestic traffic decreased slightly by 0.6 per cent compared to October last year.
More than 4.6 million passengers travelled though Avinor airports, a number that involves a 1.2 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. So far in 2016, the increase is 1.3 per cent.
Strong growth at Oslo Airport
Of major Avinor airports it is Oslo Airport that has the strongest increase in traffic, with 4.4 per cent. Trondheim (1.5 per cent), Tromsø (2.6 per cent) and Bodø (1.9 per cent) can also show to a solid increase. In addition, there has been a marginal increase in Ålesund (0.4 per cent) and Bergen (0.2 per cent).
International traffic increased by as much as 10 per cent in Trondheim, by 7 per cent in Oslo and by 4 per cent in Bergen.
“We see a strong increase in traffic to Spain, Greece and the US. The new routes from Oslo to Boston and Miami that opened this year are responsible for the increase to the US”, says Vice President Traffic Development at Avinor, Jasper Spruit.
“Moreover, Ryanair opened routes from Oslo to London and Vilnius at the end of October. We believe this will contribute to passenger growth at Oslo Airport in the time to come.
In Northern Norway there is also a strong increase in international traffic. Tromsø saw a whopping 27 per cent increase, and international traffic in Bodø increased by 9 per cent. The northern airports also record the highest percentage of growth in domestic traffic, with 2 per cent in Tromsø and 1.8 per cent in Bodø.
Sharp decline in Rogaland
Both Stavanger Airport (down 7.3 per cent) and Haugesund (down 5.8 per cent) experienced a sharp decline in passenger numbers for October. International traffic went down by 21 per cent in Haugesund and 12 per cent in Stavanger. Domestic traffic in Haugesund increased by 0.8 per cent, but decreased by 3.5 per cent in Stavanger.
“The decline in Rogaland is due to the situation in the oil industry and fewer international routes”, says Spruit.
There is still a sharp decline in the number of offshore passengers, amounting to 20.6 per cent in October.
In total, there was also a 1.7 per cent decline in airplane movements at Avinor airports compared to October 2015, which is slightly above the 1.3 per cent decline for the year as a whole.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
