– It is likely that the need will arise, but it is uncertain when, said committee leader Siri Pettersen Strandenes at Thursday’s press conference. An independent committee has assessed the need for a third runway at Oslo Airport. They recommend postponing the development. According to them, there is no need for increased capacity at the airport before the end of 2040. Little relevant with Rygge The committee has also seen the use of Rygge and Torp as a possible relief for a new third runway. But they conclude that it is not desirable to have a shared solution between Oslo Airport, Sandefjord Airport Torp and Moss Airport Rygge. Here, Strandenes presents the report which looked at whether there is a need for a third runway at Oslo Airport. Photo: Lars Håkon Pedersen / news – With regard to Moss Airport Rygge, the committee cannot see that there is anything to indicate that changes will be made to the framework conditions in the direction that the current owners point to as a necessary basis for commercial operation, among other things changes in the tax regime. The committee writes that unless the state wants to take over the civil part of Moss Airport Rygge for operation, it is less likely that the airport will appear as a solution that can relieve Oslo Airport. – This is further substantiated by the fact that the major airlines operating in Norway today have communicated to the committee that they do not wish to invest in operations at Moss Airport Rygge. Rygge has been closed for almost eight years after Ryanair pulled out completely in 2016. Local hope for new life at Rygge In Østfold and in the marsh region, since 2016 work has been done to get new air traffic at Rygge, which was a popular airport as long as it lasted. But especially the pandemic in 2020 put a serious damper on any hope that it would be possible to fly from here again. The downturn in the airline industry made it impossible to envisage a reopening of Rygge for a long time. But the local community has refused to give up hope, and in Moss mayor Simen Nord from the Conservative Party says that he has not given up. – What is being discussed is adding a certain type of air traffic to Rygge, for example charter traffic, and seeing this as part of the Gardermoen system. This is probably the opportunity to get new traffic on Rygge, says Nord. But airlines have been negative about this and it will cause challenges with passenger flow between Gardermoen and Rygge. Bet big from the start Olav Thon and Orkla spent over one billion kroner to build Moss Airport Rygge, with the belief that an airport south-east of Oslo would have a good passenger base. And in many ways they were right. After Moss Airport Rygge opened in 2008, at most almost 2 million passengers flew from here every year until 2016. It was Norwegian that opened strongly with over 15 routes from Rygge, but the big upswing came after Ryanair established a base here in 2010 and established over 40 routes to European destinations from Østfold. After this, the airport also made a profit. But when the air passenger tax was announced from 2017, the company pulled out of Rygge altogether. The Irish also faced opposition from the Norwegian judiciary and trade unions with demands to give the employees Norwegian working conditions. The result was that Rygge had to close from November 2016. Ryanair had accounted for over 90 percent of the traffic, and there was no longer a basis for operations. The following year, the company Jotunfjell Partners bought Rygge civil airport. They were the ones who ran the duty-free shop at Rygge, and they own the Airport Retail Group with shops at several airports in the Nordics. Was the leisure airport ahead of some Civil traffic from Rygge was primarily desired by the business community in Østfold, which wanted a fast connection from the immediate area to Stockholm, Copenhagen and London. But Rygge ended up largely as a leisure airport for people in the region between Oslo and Gothenburg. And it was the foreign routes that worked best and accounted for almost all the traffic from here. Several airlines have tried with varying success to get domestic traffic from Rygge while the airport was in operation, among them Norwegian and Danish DAT. Published 12.09.2024, at 09.26 Updated 12.09.2024, at 09.36
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Committee believes Rygge does not appear as an alternative to relieve Oslo Airport – news Østfold – Local news, TV and radio
