Aviation in 2024: Five percent overall growth - significant differences between airports

The number of passengers at Avinor's airports throughout 2024 was 95 percent of the 2019 level. In Europe, the number of passengers was approximately 3 percent higher than in 2019*, and globally, passenger traffic was 6.8 percent higher than in 2019 **.

Flight movements at the same level as in 2023

Throughout 2024, there were 618,000 commercial flight movements to and from Avinor's airports. This is roughly the same level as in 2023 (- 1 %). In December, the number of flight movements was 45,000, an increase of three percent from 2023.

Norway is an attractive market for tourism

"More and more tourists are coming to Norway for natural experiences such as the Northern Lights and Norway as a winter destination. The market to and from abroad has been an important driver for development throughout 2024, and indirectly for the domestic market," says Abraham Foss, CEO of Avinor.

"The number of visitors to Norway has increased throughout the year and is now back to the level we saw before the pandemic. Tourism is the most important driver, and Norway will continue to be an attractive market for foreign holidaymakers," says Foss. "We see that winter tourism continues to grow, both in Southern Norway with its significant network of alpine destinations combined with cities, and in Northern Norway with the Northern Lights and the Arctic as attractions."

The number of domestic travelers in Norway did not grow as much, and a significantly weaker growth is expected here than from abroad. The expected growth will largely come from more foreign tourists traveling domestically in Norway.

Record-full flights

An important development trend in 2024 has been that flights have been record-full throughout the year. This is due to weaker capacity development than demand growth among airlines.

Delivery challenges and technical issues with engines have led to a large number of aircraft being grounded. The Norwegian market has felt this in the form of weaker development than some other airports in Europe, which have managed to attract more capacity from airlines.

We are now facing a year with continued capacity challenges, which again results in weaker traffic growth expectations than we saw in 2024. For 2025, we expect a growth of 1.6 percent in travelers, still driven by the international market. "For Norway's ambitions for tourism development to be realized, we are entirely dependent on the continuous development of route offerings. Avinor places great emphasis on this work, through dialogue with the tourism industry and airlines both nationally and internationally. Airlines must see that it is attractive to establish routes to Norway. And it is important that Avinor continues to be self-financed and provide the best services to the industry we serve," explains Abraham Foss.

December

In December alone, the trend we saw into the winter continued, with strong growth among foreigners. The growth was a full 13 percent and three percent domestically.

In terms of volume, Oslo Airport contributes 66 percent of the total growth, but Tromsø Airport grows the most in percentage (15 percent).

Significant differences

The four largest airports all saw an increase in passenger numbers in 2024 compared to 2023. With 26 million passengers, Oslo Airport saw an increase of five percent.

Next is Bergen Airport with a passenger record in 2024. With 6.5 million travelers, it is an increase of two percent compared to 2023, and more passengers than ever before.

Trondheim and Stavanger also had more passengers in 2024 than in 2023, with increases of two percent and one percent, respectively.

Many airports have lower passenger numbers than in 2019, which was the last normal year before the pandemic. But Bergen, Tromsø, and 15 other airports had more travelers than in the previous peak year of 2019.

See the attachment for passenger numbers per airport.

Record in drone flights

In December, 1007 drone flights were reported in Ninox Drone.

"This is an increase of almost 30 percent compared to December 2023," says Mats Gjertsen, who leads Avinor's drone program.

"In 2024, a total of 24,282 drone plans were reported, which is almost 10,000 more than in 2023," says Gjertsen.

* 24-12-03 Europes airports continue strong passenger growth in October PRESS RELEASE.pdf

**Air Passenger Market Analysis (November)