The number of passengers using Avinor’s Norwegian airports in November rose by 2% on the international side and fell by 1.3% on domestic routes.

 

The Norwegian airports authority Avinor said that this yielded an overall decrease of 0.3% in relation to the 3,923,803 passengers travelling to and from Avinor’s airports in November. So far this year, almost 47m passengers have travelled to and from Avinor’s airports.

 

The market is extremely important to the DF&TR industry, since Oslo is the biggest European ‘duty free’ departures and arrivals operation and Gebr. Heinemann’s biggest single duty free location.

 

[Last year, Heinemann’s top three country travel retail markets were led by Norway with €575m ($717m), Turkey with €545m ($679m) and Germany with €400m ($499m) in sales].

 

OSLO AIRPORT STILL GREW BY 1.7%

“This is the first time in six years we have registered a decline in air traffic, and we have seen the rate of growth flatten in the last couple of months. This probably has a correlation with the challenges facing the Norwegian economy,” said Avinor CEO Dag Falk-Petersen.

 

However, he believes that a possible decline in air traffic going forward will, historically speaking, be replaced by fresh growth.

 

“This is why it is important for long-term forecasts to underline the measures we choose to implement, such as the capacity expansion projects currently underway at Oslo Airport and in Bergen. Meanwhile, Avinor is working to reduce costs and streamline operations so we can deal with cyclical fluctuations,” says Falk-Petersen.

 

Oslo Airport was the only one of the four largest airports in the country that saw traffic grow in November. The airport reported a 1.7% increase.

 

“Even though the increase in November is somewhat lower than our total for 2014, we are pleased that traffic continues to grow,” says Øyvind Hasaas, Managing Director of Oslo Airport. A total of 1,854,907 passengers travelled to or from Norway’s main airport in November, making Oslo Airport Scandinavia’s largest airport in terms of passenger numbers.

 

“Of course, it’s always a bit more fun when we beat our friends in Copenhagen,” said Hasaas.