Growth in overall air traffic but domestic traffic decreases

“The total number of travellers increased in April compared with April last year, but there was a decrease in the number of domestic passengers. Last year there was competition from the airline Flyr which means that the trend we have seen domestically is likely in part due to the reduced competition in this market. The growth in air traffic in April was thus seen in international flights – this is a market with more airlines and a more robust competition, in addition to the fact that Covid still affected the market last year” says Gaute Skallerud Riise, VP for Traffic Development at Avinor.

“Developments internationally are in line with our forecasts, while domestic traffic has been a little weaker. We expect traffic to remain below 2019 levels for the remainder of the year, with a clear peak in figures during the summer months,” says Skallerud Riise.

Aircraft movements

There were 50,137 commercial aircraft movements in April 2023. This is 1 per cent fewer movements than in April of last year. Compared to April 2019, there has been a drop in the number of aircraft movements of 6 per cent.

International air traffic still increasing

1.5 million passengers travelled between Avinor’s airports and international destinations in April. International traffic has increased by 15 per cent compared to last year when aviation was still impacted by the pandemic and some travel restrictions.

Domestic traffic decreases for the first time this year

Almost 2.2 million passengers travelled domestically in the month of April. This year to date, air traffic has increased compared with last year, but in April this trend was reversed and a decrease of 6 per cent against the same month in 2022 was recorded.

Year to date compared to 2019

A comparison of total passenger number this year to-date with the same period in 2019 shows that we are currently 14 per cent behind the 2019 benchmark year. Aircraft movements this year to-date are 9 per cent down on 2019.

Passenger figures in April from the major airports (Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim og Stavanger)are set out below, in addition to figures for regional airports (labelled as DRL) with 2022 as a comparison year:

Compared with 2019:

 Air traffic statistics