Good summer traffic at Avinors airports

“July is a month with a lot of holiday traffic both to and from Norway, and we are seeing new holiday destinations emerging,” says Vice President Traffic Development with Avinor, Jasper Spruit.

Although traffic to some of the traditional holiday destinations is slowing down somewhat, it is increasing to other and new destinations. Traffic to Turkey rose by 33 per cent, Montenegro by 25 per cent and Portugal increased by 9 per cent. Albania is a completely new destination from Norway, and also contributed to the increase. Traffic to Cyprus dropped by ten per cent, while the traditional holiday destinations Spain and Greece dropped by six per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

“Norwegian travel habits are changing somewhat over time, and it’s pleasing to see new markets emerging providing holidaymakers with more choice when planning their summer holidays,” Spruit says.

Good growth at the largest airports
The increase in July is to a great extent due to growth at the larger airports. Oslo Airport had 2.8 million passengers in July, which is an increase of 5.4 per cent compared to the same month last year. Bergen Airport saw an increase of 3.4 per cent and had 591,011 passengers in July. Some growth was also seen at Stavanger Airport (1.7 per cent) and Trondheim Airport (1.2 per cent). The regional airports saw overall growth of three per cent.

“More visitors to Norway and more Norwegians travelling contribute to greater added value. At the same time we see that the number of aircraft movements so far in 2018 equals 2017, although the number of passengers this year has increased by 2.6 per cent. More larger aircraft and more seats sold per aircraft are the reasons for this. At the same time, more airlines are deploying new and modern aircraft that contribute to less emissions and noise,” Spruit concludes.

Freight growth in June
After some months with relatively even developments, there was growth for air freight at Oslo Airport in June. Compared to June 2017, 11 per cent more freight left Norway’s main airport this year.

“We know that stronger growth will come from seafood exports after the summer and up to Christmas. It’s pleasing that we have a new freight airline in Ethiopian Cargo which can help absorb the expected growth,” says Martin Langaas, Director Cargo with Avinor.