3,972,514 passengers used Avinor’s airports in March. This was an increase of 21 percent compared to March 2022. Nevertheless, traffic remains 12 percent lower than in the same month in 2019, which was the last normal year prior to the pandemic. The number of aircraft movements, however, is only 7 percent lower than the equivalent pre-pandemic figure.
“Air traffic is still increasing compared to last year. Air traffic in the first three months of the year combined is now 15 percent behind 2019 levels. We expect air traffic to remain below 2019 levels for the remainder of the year, but in the period from June to August we expect to be just 5-7 percent below pre-pandemic levels,” says Gaute Skallerud Riise, VP for Traffic Development Avinor.
“Leisure travel to Norway is expected to be the key driver behind future development. This was also true prior to the pandemic and is a trend that will endure. This is very gratifying for the tourism industry and will over time become a more important export area for Norway. Right now, the weak Norwegian krone is also an important driving factor in this respect,” Riise asserts.
“The combined passenger figures for the year will probably end up being around 8-10 percent lower than in 2019. There is uncertainty in this respect partly due to geopolitical unrest and the uncertainty of what a reduction in spending power among Norwegian and global consumers will entail,” Riise concludes.
Aircraft movements
There were 53,376 commercial aircraft movements in March 2023. This is an increase of 8 percent from March 2022. Compared to March 2019, there has been a drop in the number of aircraft movements of 7 percent.
International traffic
1,412,695 passengers traveled between Avinor’s airports and international destinations in March. In the same month last year, there were just under 1 million international passengers. This means that international traffic has increased by 43 percent compared to last year when aviation was still impacted by the pandemic and travel restrictions.
Compared to 2019, there is a 17 percent decline in international traffic in March.
Domestic traffic
There were 2,513,418 passengers on domestic flights in March this year. This is an increase of 12 percent from March last year.
Compared to March 2019, there has been a decline of 10 percent.
