Avinor expects a 1.6% rise in travellers in 2025, spurred by the international market. Source: Øystein Løwer/ Avinor.

State-owned Norwegian airport operator Avinor has reported a 9% year-on-year rise in the number of international travellers to and from its 44 airports in 2024.

Avinor’s airports handled a total of 51.3 million passengers for the year in question – a 5% increase on 2023.

The growth in international pax outstripped that of domestic travellers (+2%), with the latter’s growth expected to continue being suppressed as Norway welcomes larger numbers of foreign tourists to the country.

Its four largest airports all recorded increases in passenger numbers in 2024 compared with 2023.

Principal destination Oslo Gardermoen Airport attracted 26.4 million passengers (+5%), followed by Bergen Airport with 6.5 million (+3%), Trondheim Airport at 4.0 million (+1%) and Stavanger Airport flat at 3.9 million.

However, while many airports recorded fewer passengers than in 2019, Bergen, Tromso and 15 other airports welcomed more travellers than the pre-Covid year.

Capacity challenges

Abraham Foss, CEO of Avinor stated: “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.

“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.

“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 airport operator reports strong passenger load factors throughout 2024, though notes weaker capacity development than demand growth among its airlines.

Ongoing capacity challenges are tipped to persist in 2025, observes Avinor, playing out in weaker traffic growth forecasts.

In 2025, the airport operator predicts growth of +1.6% in travellers, driven by the international market.

“For Norway’s ambitions for tourism development to be realised, we are entirely dependent on the continuous development of route offerings,” added Foss. “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.”

Globally, passenger traffic measured by revenue per passenger kilometres (RPK) – the number of paying passengers multiplied by distance travelled – was 6.8% higher in 2024 against 2019, according to IATA.

All infographics above courtesy of Avinor.

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