Passenger figures at Avinor’s airports increased by 10 per cent in 2021

Credit: Avinor Group

The largest growth was at Bergen Airport (BGO), which increased from 2.7 million passengers in 2020 to 3.2 million in 2021. Oslo Airport (OSL) saw a four per cent increase for 2021 overall compared to 2020, from nine million to 9.4 million travellers.

“These are still very challenging times for aviation, with a lot of uncertainty about further development of the pandemic,” said CEO of Avinor, Abraham Foss. “Although we are seeing an increase in the number of passengers and aircraft movements, we have seen a sharp decline in both traffic revenues and commercial revenues for the year in total, as a result of fewer passengers and aircraft movements.”

“As a result of increased vaccination rates and easing of travel restrictions, we saw an increase in travel activity throughout the summer and autumn season. Activity declined towards Christmas, when new restrictions were introduced because of the Omicron outbreak,” added Foss.

The number of aircraft movements increased by eight per cent from 2020

Flights to and from offshore installations continue to run as normal. At the same time, the trend of several dedicated freighters that we saw in 2020 continues. In total, freight and mail increased by 10 per cent from 2020 to 2021, to 217,000 tonnes.

In December 2021, passenger traffic increased by 113 per cent compared to December 2020. Compared to 2019, Christmas traffic (week 52) was 44 per cent lower in 2021. The number of domestic passengers was down 32 per cent, while international travel was down 60 per cent.

Measured against 2019, the decrease in total passenger traffic for 2021 is 59 per cent.