Air traffic grows but remains below normal levels

14 Apr 2023 11:38 CEST

3,972,514 passengers used Avinor’s airports in March. This was an increase of 21
per cent compared to March 2022. Nevertheless, traffic remains 12 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent below
pre-pandemic levels,” says Gaute Skallerud Riise, VP for Traffic Development at
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 per cent 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 per cent from March 2022. Compared to March 2019, there has been a
drop in the number of aircraft movements of 7 per cent.

International traffic
1,412,695 passengers have travelled 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 per cent compared to last year when aviation was still impacted
by the pandemic and travel restrictions. Compared to 2019, there is a 17 per
cent 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 per cent from March last year. Compared to March 2019, there
has been a decline of 10 per cent.

Year to date
A comparison of total passenger number this year to-date with the same period in
2019 shows that we are currently 15 per cent behind the 2019 benchmark year.

Link to statistics:
https://avinor.no/en/corporate/about-us/statistics/traffic-statistics

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