Travel Retail Norway (TRN) the joint venture duty free operator at Oslo Gardermoen Airport has reported an approximate 33% sales increase of NK.700m ($111.8m) to NK.2.2bn ($351.5m) between 2005 and 2006 across its five airport

locations.
According to a report in yesterday?s Esmerk Norwegian News the joint venture between Gebr Heinemann and Norwegian cosmetics retailer Esthetique Norge AS exceeded its budget by 10% and benefited strongly from the pull through of one full year's operation of its 630sq m duty free arrivals shop at Oslo Gardermoen Airport.
The increase is not entirely unexpected, but the establishment of arrivals shopping at Oslo Gardermoen was very timely, considering today's extra pressure on passengers carrying liquids at airport security points.
TRN, which also operates the duty free stores at Norway's regional airports of Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger and Kristiansand, is particularly strong in the fragrances and cosmetics category, with sales said to account for around 40% of all transactions at Oslo Gardermoen where 85% to 90% of all TRN's duty free sales are made. Duty free liquor sales account for around 30%.
Oslo Gardermoen Airport reported a 7.9% growth in total passenger traffic to 1.4m in November and a 9.9% increase in international traffic within those figures. Between January and November the airport said that a total of 16.4m passengers used the facility, with one million more international passengers than in 2005.
?We are still seeing strong growth in international scheduled traffic and we are in line to carry 17.7m passengers on an annual basis,? said Marketing Manager for traffic development Knut Stab?k.