Avinor Oslo Airport’s significance as a hub is increasing

The proportion of domestic traffic to and from Oslo Airport has also increased - from 73 per cent in 2015 to 75 per cent in 2017. The proportion of travellers from regional airports that used Oslo Airport to connect to international flights increased from 51 to 58 per cent during the same period.

‘Avinor’s Travel Survey 2017 shows that increasing tourism, in particular, has driven growth in air passenger numbers, which the tourism industry has also confirmed in recent seasons. Avinor’s mission is to facilitate the needs that arise from this - both for visitors coming to Norway and for travelling Norwegians whether they are flying domestically or internationally,’ says CEO of Avinor, Dag Falk-Petersen.

Innovation Norway: ‘Good flight options are crucial’
Passengers living outside Norway accounted for 73 per cent of scheduled air passenger growth from 2015 to 2017. The proportion of passengers on scheduled flights reporting that they are resident abroad has increased from 44 per cent in 2015 to 47 per cent in 2017. Most visitors come from the UK, USA and Germany, with 15, 11 and 9 per cent market shares respectively. Sweden, Denmark and France then follow.

‘It is gratifying that growth is continuing in key markets such as the UK, Germany and the USA. These travellers stay for a long time and bring in large sums of money. Good flight options are crucial if we are to continue attracting travellers to Norway as a whole through the year,’ says Bente Bratland Holm, Director of Tourism at Innovation Norway.

Number of foreigners on domestic routes has also increased significantly
From 2015 to 2017, the number of foreigners on domestic flights increased by 53 per cent - from 1.3 million to 2 million passengers. The proportion of foreigners on domestic flights increased from 9 per cent in 2015 to 13 per cent in 2017. The highest proportion of foreigners in 2017 on departures from Oslo were on flights to Svalbard (53 per cent), Kirkenes (32 per cent) and Tromsø (30 per cent). The Oslo-Tromsø route saw the biggest growth, with the number of foreign passengers rising from 150,000 to 350,000 in the two-year period.

Norwegians travel less domestically and more internationally
The number of flights per capita has fallen and is now at 2.3 trips per person. Travel frequency has fallen particularly significantly in Northern Norway. The number of domestic business trips fell by a total of 2 per cent from 2015 to 2017, while there was growth of 8 per cent for the number of holiday and leisure trips.

Almost all growth in international air travel to and from Norway was due to holiday and leisure passengers. The number of Norwegians travelling abroad on holiday and leisure trips increased by 8 per cent from 2015 to 2017. London, Copenhagen and Stockholm are the biggest foreign destinations for scheduled flights.

USA biggest intercontinental destination
Intercontinental destinations accounted for fifteen per cent of international scheduled flights to and from Avinor’s airports in 2017, which was equal to 2015. During the course of the last 10 years from 2007 to 2017, the number of intercontinental passengers increased from 1.7 to 2.9 million, representing annual growth of five per cent.

The most important intercontinental destination is the USA, with 1.2 million passengers in 2017. Thailand is the second largest, and Canada has overtaken Dubai/UAE as the third largest destination. Avinor’s Travel Survey 2017 includes 147,000 passengers at 10 airports.

The Institute of Transport Economics has analysed the figures.