Avinor Oslo Airport Awarded Medium Airport Of The Year (Over 10 Million Annual Passengers)
This is awarded to the airport with over 10 million annual passengers that has been the biggest standout strategically, has established itself as a strategic leader, and done the most to advance the progress of the aviation industry.
Avinor Oslo Airport was selected for its innovation in the area of environmentalism and the opening of a second terminal.
Oslo traffic has increased by more than 50% since 2010, when it handled only 19 million passengers. It is on pace to handle around 29 million passengers in 2018, making it the second biggest airport in the Nordic region despite Norway having the smallest population apart from Iceland.
Norway’s airport authority, Avinor, has gained a reputation for seamless integration of new infrastructure, as witnessed by the successful integration of the EUR900 million Terminal 2 in 2017 and for its propensity for advance planning. Construction of a EUR350 million extension for the non-Schengen east terminal began in Oct-2018 and will increase the airport’s non-Schenghen capacity by almost 50% to 8 million when it is completed in 2022. Oslo has experienced rapid growth in non-Europe traffic in recent years and the airport now has 14 links outside Europe.
It is perhaps in the area of environmentalism that Norway and its leading airport are best known. The country has already set a date for the implementation of electrically-powered only aircraft on short haul routes (it already has the highest number of electric cars per capita in the world). For its part Avinor Oslo Airport is collaborating in an ambitious project to build a ‘sustainable’ and ‘energy positive’ (meaning solar powered) airport city to be built around an existing business park, using electric vehicles only. A geothermal power project has also been launched at the airport site.
“Avinor Oslo has been a standout in Europe’s competitive airport sector for several years,” Mr Harbison said. “The opening of the second terminal and the breaking ground on a further terminal extension as well as its innovative environmental work further positions Oslo’s main airport as a strategic leader in Europe and globally.”