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Oslo Airport, Gardermoen

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Check in-hall

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen (IATA: OSL, ICAO: ENGM) (Norwegian: Oslo lufthavn, Gardermoen) is located in Gardermoen in Ullensaker, Norway, 48 km north of Oslo. Opened in 1998, it is the main international airport serving Norway with two runways. It is a hub of SAS Braathens and Norwegian Air Shuttle. The airport serves as international airport with departures mostly within Europe, but a few to other continents.

In 2006 Oslo Airport passed Stockholm Arlanda (17,5 mill) as the 2nd largest airport in the Nordic countries behind Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup (20,9 mill).

Approximately 17.7 million passengers travelled through Oslo Airport in 2006, which is an increase of 1.8 million since 2005, it is also the fastest growing major airport among the Nordic countries. The airport has two parallel runways of 2950 m and 3600 m, 34 passenger bridges and 5 commuter stands, 64 check-in counters and 71 aircraft stands.

The airport functions as a national hub, with a total of 25 domestic destinations, with 16 being served with jet aircraft. Seven are served on public service obligation contract with the Norwegian government using regional aircraft.

Gardermoen has the largest duty free shop in Europe. This due to the fact that Norway is not an EU member, and still may sell goods duty free to all international destinations. Since 2006, also arriving passengers are able to buy duty free products in a special shop located in the baggage claim area.

Sandefjord Airport, Torp also serves Oslo, primarily by low-cost carriers and regional airlines.

History

Military and secondary

The 91 meter tall control tower
File:Gardermoen Aerial View.jpeg
Overview of Oslo airport
To the Arrivals Hall


The Norwegian Army started using Gardermoen as a camp as early as 1740, when it was then called Fredericksfeldt. The first flight took place in 1912, and by 1920 there were multiple hangars at the airport.

When the Germans invaded Norway during World War II they bombed the airport, but subsequently rebuilt it with two 2000-meter runways.

After the war Gardermoen was used both for charter and intercontinental flights. Charter flights were operated from 1972 at Gardermoen instead of Fornebu due to a lack of slots at Fornebu, while intercontinental flights had to be operated from Gardermoen because the runway at Fornebu was too short. It was only in the 1990s that SAS flights to New York were moved to Fornebu.

Finding a new airport

After Gressholmen (sea) and Kjeller Airport (land) had been serving Oslos as airports, the new airport at Oslo Airport, Fornebu opened in 1939. But in the 1980s the airport was getting severe capacity problems. The airport had only one runway, so there were no available slots at the airport during morning and afternoon rush. This made it impossible for the new deregulated airline market to work, since potential new airlines would not have access to enough slots at Fornebu. A new runway could not be constructed because of space problems. The old airport also suffered from lack of adequate public transport, with no metro or railway line to the airport. The airport was located quite close to the city centre and beside a residential area, causing great sound pollution problems.

There were many candidate locations for the new main airport for Oslo, notably Hobøl, Hurum, Kroer, Ås and Gardermoen. Though the political process around the airport location started in the 1950s, the first real decision came in 1988 when parliament decided to build an airport at Hurum. But meteorological surveys showed that there would be too much fog at Hurum, and the process was cancelled. On October 8 1992 parliament made a final decision to build an airport at Gardermoen.

OSL Gardermoen

A new operating company, Oslo Lufthavn AS took over the operating of Gardermoen and Fornebu. The decision in parliament meant that the new airport had to be build self-financing, and so a separate limited company had to be created to finance the new airport. The airport's total construction cost of 11,4 billion NOK was all borrowed by the company, and profits from airport operations are used to pay the debt. The company also operated Fornebu from January 1 1997. Oslo Lufthavn AS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Avinor AS, the Norwegian civil airport administration.

A new high-speed railway, Gardermobanen, was built at the same time as the airport. Trains depart the airport for Oslo Central Station six times each hour. It was the first high-speed railway built in Norway, and is now operated by Flytoget.

Gardermoen took over as the main Oslo airport on 8 October 1998, when Fornebu Airport was closed. The transfer happened overnight, and was a major operation. The new airport has a capacity of 17 million passengers per year, and 80 air movements per hour.

After the opening of Gardermoen, the access of slots at the airport and the arrival of a new low-cost carrier Color Air resulted in a major price war among the airlines, ending in 1999 when Color Air ceased operations. During this period there were almost 50 daily flights between Gardermoen and each of Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim.

In October 2001 the only intercontinental flight, to Newark, New Jersey with SAS was discontinued. In 2004 Continental Airlines resumed service on this route. There is also a regular connection to Pakistan, and some charter flights to Thailand and some other countries on other continents.

In 2002 Norwegian Air Shuttle, started operations using Gardermoen as its hub. The airline serves 46 international and 8 domestic destinations.

On January 18 2006, Liv Signe Navarsete, minister of Transport and Communications, opened Europe's first infrared deicing hangar at Oslo Airport. The hangar will supplement standard deicing for the rest of the winter season.

Future plans

Due to the rapid passenger growth, the airport has already exceeded its originally capasity limit of 17 mill passenger per annum and soon to reach the critical limit of 20 mill within few years.

There are plans for increasing the terminal area by adding a new terminal B situated 500m north of the present terminal, this is connected by an underground passage and may be completed in 2010 at the earliest. This idea was predicted even before the completion of the airport, it was therefore included in the developement plans of the airport as a whole.

The Government has discussed the opportunity of a third runway in the future, but it is not planned to be completed until 2040. There is also a question if the airport will ever need this (London Heathrow has two.), when Oslo's third airport Moss Rygge is soon to be opened in October 2007.

Airlines and Destinations

Domestic Scheduled

File:Gardermoen Braathens and SAS.jpeg
Braathens and SAS aircraft in both old and new liveries at Gardermoen
Check-in Departure Hall

International Scheduled

Charter

Cargo

The following cargo airlines fly to Oslo Airport:

Pegasus Airlines provides helicopter service.


Accessibility

The Airport Express Train
  • Rail
    • A high-speed train service, Flytoget takes 19 minutes for the journey to Oslo's central station. (Oslo S) every 10 minutes. It also serves suburbs east and west of Oslo.
    • All trains heading north of Oslo on Hovedbanen stop at the airport.
  • Bus
    • Flybussekspressen operates a bus service to the airport
    • Most express buses from central and northwestern Norway stop at Gardermoen.
  • Motorway
    • The airport is located on E6
    • 11,400 parking spaces.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen.

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