Nearly 4.9 million passengers passed through Avinor’s airports in September, a 2% increase on the same month last year, as autumn continued to attract travellers following a busy summer season.
The state-owned Norwegian airport operator said growth was evenly spread across domestic and international traffic, with more than two million passengers travelling between Norway and overseas destinations — a rise of 3% year on year.
Gaute Skallerud Riise, Avinor’s vice-president of traffic development said: “The trends we observed during the summer have continued into September, which is increasingly becoming a tourism-focused month.
He noted that growth was strongest in markets with high international demand. Bergen saw an 11% rise in international passengers, while Evenes and Tromsø reported increases of 11% and 6% respectively.
Larger airports such as Oslo (+1%), Stavanger (+1%) and Trondheim (0%) saw slower growth.
“It is clearly a concern for the respective regions, but also for Norway as a whole, regarding the development of Oslo Airport, which is the country’s main hub,” Mr Skallerud Riise added.
Record-high load factors
Flights were busier than ever in September, with 74.5% of all seats filled — the highest load factor ever recorded for the month. So far this year, the average stands at 74.7%, also a record. “The growth in passenger numbers is outpacing the increase in available seats,” Mr Skallerud Riise said.
Flight movements and drone activity
Avinor registered 66,578 commercial flight movements in September, up 1% year on year.
The operator also reported a rise in responsible drone flying, with 3,320 drone flight plans registered in its Ninox Drone management system — a 15% increase compared with last year.
“It’s encouraging to see more people registering their drone flights, which helps foster a culture of safe and visible drone use,” said Mats Gjertsen, head of Avinor’s drone programme.
A total of 25,344 drone flight plans have been logged so far this year.
