Ranked at the top of numerous economic and social development rankings, Norway has all the necessary infrastructure to do business. The geographical position of the country not only creates certain technical difficulties, but also provides significant advantages. Norwegian airports are an important part of the country's business infrastructure and are very helpful in doing business for both local entrepreneurs and foreign investors.
Features of geography and transport
The territory of Norway stretches in a narrow strip along the coast of the Barents and North Seas. At its widest point, Norwegian land barely reaches 420 kilometers. Given the considerable length of the territory, as well as very harsh climatic conditions, Norwegian airports are of great importance for the economy and social sphere.
Airports are especially important for such sovereign territories as the Svalbard archipelago, located in the Arctic Ocean at a considerable distance from the mainland.
Norway's main airport:history
As in many other countries, the main airport is located in the capital. The largest international airport in Norway, located forty-eight kilometers from Oslo, is called Gardermoen.
In the early 1990s, it became apparent that the existing Fornebu airport in Oslo could no longer cope with the ever-increasing passenger traffic, which began to grow due to the rapid development of business in the country. In this regard, it was decided to build a new airport in Norway.
In 1998, the first civilian flight landed in Gardermoen. The place for the construction of the airport was not chosen by chance, already in 1912 summer tests of the first airplanes were regularly carried out in this area, and during the Second World War there was an airfield of the Nazi air forces that occupied the kingdom.
Gardermoen is the largest airport in the country
Today, this airport in Norway is the fastest growing in Northern Europe, second only to Danish Kastrup in terms of passenger traffic. In 2017, the airport served about 25 million passengers, which is significantly more than a year earlier.
Scheduled flights link the airport with twenty-five foreign airports, most of which are served by jets. However, a feature of Gardermoen is the active use of local propeller-driven aviation.
Norway's main airport in Oslo is a hub for two airlines - Scandinavian Airlines System, Norwegian Air Shuttle, which means that communication between all countries is carried out through itScandinavia and the B altics. In addition, this airport has the largest duty-free zone in Western Europe.
Bergen Airport, Norway
The second most important airport in the country is located in the municipality of Bergen. Until 1999, this airfield was used not only by civil, but also by military aviation. Today, it is reserved exclusively for passenger traffic, the volume of which reaches six million people a year.
Despite the fact that flights to Spain and Israel fly from the airport, short local routes make up a significant part of the traffic. A large number of flights depart from the airport to oil platforms in the North Sea.
The airport is served by numerous low cost airlines, making it a popular destination for travelers looking to get to Oslo as cheaply as possible. However, it is worth remembering that Norway is a very expensive country, and transport services there are among the most expensive in Europe. This means that a bus ticket from Bergen Airport to the capital can cost as much as a plane ticket.
Svalbard Airport
State sovereignty cannot be effectively exercised without transport connectivity throughout the country. In the case of the remote Svalbard archipelago, transport infrastructure is of particular importance.
From an administrative point of view, Svalbard is part of the province of Svalbard, whose capital is Longyearbyen. There is nothing surprising inthat the airport is the northernmost civilian airport in the world. Despite this, the hub's passenger traffic exceeds 138,000 people a year.
SAS operates daily flights to Oslo and Tromso. The peculiarity of the airport is that due to the special international status of the territory, it does not carry out passport control of Russian citizens, even though Norway is part of the Schengen zone.
Kirkenes Airport
Fifteen kilometers from the city of Kirkenes, there is a civilian airport that has been operating smoothly since 1963. The annual passenger flow of the airfield reaches three hundred thousand people, a significant part of which are Russian citizens, since Kirkenes is located in close proximity to the border, and the nearest large city on the Russian side is Murmansk, the most significant settlement beyond the Arctic Circle.
Russians are attracted to Kirkenes Airport by a large selection of low-cost airlines, thanks to which you can easily get to any European city with just one change.
