More than 5.1 million passengers travelled to and from and via Norwegian airport operator Avinor’s gateways in July which was an increase of 4.1 per cent compared to July 2017.
Traffic to Turkey rose by 33 per cent, Montenegro by 25 per cent and Portugal increased by nine 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.
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.
Avinor vice president traffic development, Jasper Spruit said: “July is a month with a lot of holiday traffic both to and from Norway, and we are seeing new holiday destinations emerging.
“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 added: “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.”
