Oslo Airport, Gardermoen

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, Oslo lufthavn, Gardermoen, is the principal airport serving Oslo, Norway. It acts as the main domestic hub and international airport for Norway, and the second-busiest airport in the Nordic countries. A hub for Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle, and a focus city for Widerøe, it is connected to 25 domestic, 27 European and 5 intercontinental destinations. More than 19 million passengers traveled through Oslo Airport in 2010, of which 8.6 million were domestic—making Gardermoen the sixth-busiest domestic airport in Europe.

The airport is located at Gardermoen in Ullensaker, 19 nautical miles (35 km; 22 mi) northeast of Oslo. The airport has two parallel roughly north–south runways 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) and 2,950 metres (9,680 ft) long, 71 aircraft stands, of which 34 have jet bridges. The airport is connected to the city center by the high-speed Gardermoen Line served by mainline trains and Flytoget. The civilian facilities are owned by Oslo Lufthavn AS, a subsidiary of the state-owned Avinor. Also at the premises is Gardermoen Air Station, operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force. Oslo is also served by the low-cost Sandefjord Airport, Torp and Moss Airport, Rygge.

The area was taken into use by the Norwegian Army in 1740, with the first military airport facilities being built during the 1940s. Gardermoen remained a secondary reserve and charter airport to Oslo Airport, Fornebu until 8 October 1998, when the latter closed and an all-new Gardermoen opened, costing NOK 11.4 billion. An expansion with a third pier is scheduled to open after 2012.

History

The Norwegian–Danish army started using Gardermoen as a camp in 1740, although it was called Fredericksfeldt until 1788. It was first used by the cavalry, then by the dragoons and in 1789 by the riding marines. The base was also taken into use by the infantry from 1834 and by the artillery from 1860. Tents were solely used until 1860, when the first barracks and stalls were taken into use. Isolated buildings were built around 1900, allowing the camp to be used year-round. By 1925, the base had eleven camps and groups of buildings. The first flight at Gardermoen happened in 1912, and Gardermoen became a station for military flights. However, only fields and dirt surfaces were used.

During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, the Luftwaffe took over Gardermoen, and built the first proper airport facilities with hangars and two crossing runways, both 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) long. After World War II, the airport was taken over by the Norwegian Air Force and made the main air station. Three fighter and one transport squadron were stationed at the Gardermoen.

In 1946, Braathens SAFE established their technical base at the airport, but left two years later. Gardermoen also became the reserve airport for Oslo Airport, Fornebu, when the latter was closed due to fog. From 1946 to 1952, when a longer runway was built at Fornebu, all intercontinental traffic was moved to Gardermoen. Gardermoen grew up as a training field for the commercial airlines and as local airport for general aviation. Some commercial traffic returned again in 1960, when SAS received its first Sud Aviation Caravelle jet aircraft, that could not use the runway at Fornebu until it was extended again in 1962. SAS introduced a direct flight to New York in 1962, but it was quickly terminated.

In 1972, capacity restraints forced the authorities to move all charter traffic from Fornebu to Gardermoen. However, SAS and Braathens SAFE were allowed to keep their charter services from Fornebu, so they would not have to operate from two bases. A former hangar was converted to a terminal building and in 1974 passenger numbers were at 269,000 per year. In 1978, SAS started a weekly flight to New York. In 1983, further restrictions were enforced, and also SAS and Braathens SAFE had to move their charter operations to Gardermoen, increasing passenger numbers that year to 750,000. Several expansions of runway were made after the war, and by the 1985-extension the north-south runway was 3,050 metres (10,010 ft).

Facilities

The airport covers an area of 13 square kilometres (5.0 sq mi) It is built based on the Atlanta-model, with two parallel runways and a single terminal with two piers on a single line. Non-commercial and practice general aviation is not operated at Gardermoen, and is mainly done from Kjeller Airport, Rakkestad Airport and Tønsberg Airport, Jarlsberg. Gardermoen is located 19 nautical miles (35 km; 22 mi) north-northeast of Oslo.

Terminal

The passenger terminal covers 148,000 square metres (1,590,000 sq ft) and is 819 metres (2,687 ft) long.  It has place for 52 aircraft, of which 34 are connected with bridges and eighteen are remotely parked. Domestic gates are located in the west wing, while international gates are in the east wing, with non-Schengen gates at the east end. Three of the gates are "flexigates" for both domestic and international Schengen flights, another four gates near the east end are flexigates for both Schengen and non-Schengen flights. EU controllers have been somewhat sceptical of the Schengen/non-Schengen flexigates, and there were a few incidents where the wrong doors were opened so that passengers who should have gone through the border control did not. Capacity is 17 million,although in 2008, 19.3 million passengers used the airport. The airport is "silent", so announcements for flights are only done in the immediate vicinity of the gate. There is a playground in both the domestic and international sections, and a quiet room in the domestic section. There are stationed medical personnel at the airport.

About half the airport operator's income is from retail revenue. There are twenty eating places, of which seven are operated by Reitangruppen and thirteen by Select Service Partner. In addition there are stores and other services including banks and post. 7,200 square metres (78,000 sq ft) is used for restaurants, stores and non-aviation services. The duty-free shop is 1,530 square metres (16,500 sq ft) and the largest in Europe. The shop is located in front of the international concourse, taking up a large part of the terminal's width. 

Art and architecture

Architects were Aviaplan, a joint venture between the agencies Narud Stokke Wiig, Niels Torp, Skaarup & Jespersen and Hjellnes Cowi. Main architect was Gudmund Stokke. The terminal building has a light, floating roof that gives a simple construction. First the walls were erected, and a roof put on top. Afterwards, internal facilities could be added. The roof is held up with wooden reefers. The main construction materials are wood, metal and glass. The airlines were required to follow the same design rules for their buildings as the terminal. The main art on the land side of the airport is Alexis, consisting of six steel sculptures in stainless steel created by Per Inge Bjørlo. On the air side, Carin Wessel used 30,000 metres (98,000 ft) of thread to make the impression of clouds and webs, named Ad Astra. Anna Karin Rynander and Per-Olof Sandberg cooperated in making two installations: The Marathon Dancers, located in the baggage claim area, is a set of two electronic boards that show a dancing person. Sound Refreshment Station, of which six are located in the departure areas, are sound "showers" that make refreshing sounds when a person is immediately under them. Sidsel Westbø has etched the glass walls. In the check-in area, there are small boxes under the floor with glass ceilings that contain curiosities. As well as the custom-made art, several existing sculptures and paintings have been bought. At the National Road 35 and European Route E6 junction, Vebjørn Sand has built a 14-metre (46 ft) statue named the Kepler Star. It consists of two internally-illuminated Kepler–Poinsot polyhedrons, appearing like a giant star in the sky after dark.

Runways and air control

The airport has two parallel runways, aligned 01/19. The west runway is 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) long, while the east runway is 2,950 metres (9,680 ft) long. Both have taxiways, allowing 80 air movements per hour. The runways are equipped with instrument landing system category 3A and the airport is supervised by a 90-metre (300 ft) tall control tower. Once aircraft are 15 kilometres (9 mi) from the airport, responsibility is taken over by Oslo Air Traffic Control Center, who supervises the airspace with Haukåsen Radar. There are two ground radars at the airport, located on the far sides of each of the runways. Both at the gates and along the taxiways, there is an automatic system of lights that guide the aircraft. On the tarmac, these are steered by the radar, while they are controlled by motion sensors at the gate.

There are four deicing stations. Both fire stations each have three fire cars, and is part of the municipal fire department. Meteorological services are operated by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who have 12 weather stations and 16 employees at the airport. This includes Norway's first aeronautic information service and a self-briefing room, in addition to briefings from professionals. Restrictions on air movements apply overnight from 23:00 to 06:00, although permitted if landing from and taking off to the north.

Ground transport

Situated about 47 kilometres (29 mi) from the city center, Oslo Airport offers extended public transporting services. The airport has the world's highest degree of public transport, with a share of 60 %.

The 64 kilometres (40 mi) Gardermoen Line opened the same day as the airport, and runs in a tunnel below the airport facilities, where Oslo Airport Station is located below the terminal. The Flytoget airport express train operates to Oslo Central Station six times per hour in nineteen minutes, with three services continuing onwards via five intermediate stations to Drammen Station. The Airport Express Train has a 34 % ground transport share.

The Norwegian State Railways (NSB) also operates from the airport, both a commuter train service to Eidsvoll and Kongsberg, and a regional service north to Oppland and Hedmark, and south to Vestfold. Both offer services to Oslo, and the latter allows direct service to Sandefjord Airport, Torp. Five daily express trains to Trondheim stop at the airport, including one night train.

Departure drop area

The Oslo Airport Express Coach serves the airport, from Oslo, Fredrikstad, Ski and Gjøvik. In addition, most express buses from other parts of Norway stop at the airport. The local transport authority, Ruter, operates a number of services to Gardermoen from nearby places.

The airport is located on Norwegian National Road 35, which connects as a four-lane motorway to the European Route E6 about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to the east. The E6 runs south with four lanes to Oslo, and northwards with two or four lanes towards Oppland, Hedmark and Central Norway. National Road 35 connects with two lanes westward as a toll road towards Southern Oppland. There are 11,400 parking spaces at the airport, as well as taxi stands and rental car facilities.

Traffic

Oslo Airport has a catchment area of 2.5 million people, including most of Eastern Norway and 0.3 million people in Sweden. In 2009, Oslo Airport served 18,087,722 passengers, 77,761 tonnes (76,533 long tons; 85,717 short tons) of cargo and 211,048 aircraft movements, down from 2008.Within the European Economic Area (EEA) in 2008, Oslo Airport ranked as the seventeenth-busiest overall, and the sixth-busiest in domestic traffic. It is the second-busiest airport in the Nordic countries, after Copenhagen Airport. The busiest route is to Trondheim, which with 1.6 million passengers was the tenth-busiest route within the EEA. Along with the domestic routes to Bergen and Stavanger, and the international routes to Copenhagen and Stockholm, Oslo Airport served five of the twenty-five busiest routes in the EEA in 2007, all with more than one million passengers.

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Jens Stoltenberg

Jens Stoltenberg, born 16 March 1959 is a Norwegian politician, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party and the current Prime Minister of Norway. Having assumed office on 17 October 2005, Stoltenberg previously served as Prime Minister from 2000 to 2001.

Having first been elected to Parliament in 1993 for the Oslo constituency, Stoltenberg served as State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment from 1990 to 1991 and as Minister of Industry from 1993 to 1996 in the Third Cabinet Brundtland, respectively. Following the resignation of Brundtland in 1996, Thorbjørn Jagland was elected leader of the Labour Party and became Prime Minister, while Stoltenberg was appointed Minister of Finance, an office he held until 17 October 1997 when Jagland and the entire government resigned. While in parliamentary opposition, Stoltenberg served in the standing committees on energy affairs. Following a motion of confidence against the First Cabinet Bondevik, Stoltenberg was appointed Prime Minister on 3 March 2000, despite being deputy leader of the Labour Party, and not the party leader.

After poor results in the 2001 parliamentary election, and the subsequent fall of his government on 19 October of that same year, Stoltenberg successfully challenged Thorbjørn Jagland for the Labour Party leadership in 2002, and led the party to victory in the 2005 election by forming a Red-Green coalition government with the Centre Party (Sp) and the Socialist Left Party (SV). He was re-elected in 2009 for another term as Prime Minister of Norway.

Career,Early career

From 1979 to 1981 Stoltenberg was a journalist for Arbeiderbladet; between 1985 and 1989, he was the leader of the Workers' Youth League and between 1990 and 1992, leader of the Oslo chapter of the Labour Party.

Minister of Finance

Before becoming Minister of Finance, Stoltenberg was Minister for trade and energy in Gro Harlem Brundtland's cabinet between 1993-1996. In 1996 when Brundtland resigned, Thorbjørn Jagland stepped in for her and became the new Norwegian Prime Minister. In Jagland's government, Stoltenberg became Minister of Finance.On the 29 September 1997, Jagland resigned because he had stated that the cabinet would resign should the party receive less than 36.9% of the popular vote. Labour only received 35.0%; true to his promise, Jagland resigned, and power was transferred to the first cabinet of Kjell Magne Bondevik. After Jagland's resignation, Stoltenberg served as the of standing committee on oil and energy affairs in the Storting.

AUF membership scandal

The AUF (Workers' Youth League) membership scandal refers to the police investigation and subsequent court cases in Norway in early 1998 where four members of AUF stood accused of deliberately inflating membership numbers of their organization in order to receive increased government funding. They were eventually found guilty of fraud and handed jail sentences. The unlawful practice of submitting higher membership numbers to city council offices had at the time become an accepted culture in various political youth organizations, and it is believed that the leadership of the parties involved were aware of this practice. Although only four members were prosecuted and jailed, former members of the AUF and by that stage leading politicians got off the hook. Among these were Stoltenberg and former prime minister Jagland.

On 2 March 1995, the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) published the story. On 14 March 1995, twelve days later, Stoltenberg and former AUF leader Turid Birkeland admitted that 'advancing' money to pay for membership fees was a common and accepted practice at the time they were involved with the organization. However, on 17 March 1998, Stoltenberg was called in to give testimony in the case. He told the Oslo city court, under oath, that he was unfamiliar with the artificial inflating of membership figures which took place in the AUF. He also told the court that he was unaware of any form of fraud taking place in the organisation under his leadership, and stated that he had never heard of 'advancing' money to pay for memberships until VG broke the story. He also stated that in his opinion it was not necessarily wrong to 'advance' money for members provided that the members in question reimbursed this fee later on.

Stoltenberg was also cross-examined by defense lawyer Tor Erling Staff, who pointed out that membership numbers for the AUF during Stoltenberg's tenure - 11,000 - were too high.

First term

In 2000 the first cabinet of Bondevik resigned following a motion of confidence. Stoltenberg's first cabinet governed Norway from 17 March 2000 to 19 October 2001. Stoltenberg was the deputy leader of the labor party while Jagland was the party leader. Instead Jagland was given the post as Foreign Minister. Again, Jagland made national headlines similar to the publicity about "The Norwegian House" and "36.9%", this time for the phrase "Bongo from Congo", originally coined as an internal joke in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the expense of the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo. Stoltenberg's first tenure as Prime Minister (2000–2001) was controversial within his own party, being responsible for reforms and modernisation of the welfare state that included part-privatising several key state-owned services and corporations. In the parliamentary election of 10 September 2001, the party suffered one of its worst results ever, winning only 24% of the vote.

The 2001 election met with instability for the labour party, because of the voters' unhappiness with the lack of nursery schools, retirement homes and a declining standard of public education in Norway. The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet stated: "We are heading for a political earthquake when the votes are counted tonight, if we believe the opinion polls. In an interview with The Associated Press Jagland stated "It is unstable and unpredictable. 

Power struggle

The disastrous results of 2001 were quickly followed by a bitter leadership battle between Jagland and Stoltenberg. In 2002, Jagland was replaced as party leader by Stoltenberg. This did not come as a surprise for many in the Labour Party. However, before any voting took place Jagland relinquished the post and gave it to Stoltenberg. because Jagland had recently been hospitalized due to general health problems, and had moreover felt "responsibility to end this destructive personal strife". The power struggle ended up with Stoltenberg becoming the new labour party leader in Norway.

Second term

Stoltenberg's second cabinet has governed Norway since 17 October 2005. The 2005 parliamentary election saw a vast improvement for Labour, and the party gained a majority in parliament together with the other "Red-Green" parties, the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party. This paved the way for a historic first in Norway, with Labour joining in a coalition government, the Red-Green Coalition, after a coalition deal with Stoltenberg was struck. Since the government's formation, key political issues such as Norwegian military participation in the current war in Afghanistan, petroleum activities in the Barents Sea, LGBT rights, immigration and the quality of standard education have been greatly debated by the public. Following Stoltenberg's re-election in 2009, the government has put further restrictions on immigration matters due to ongoing threats of terrorism, centralised and re-organised health care and public hospitals, dealt with the ongoing global recession and championed for environmentalist policies through private and corporate taxation. A marine border dispute with Russia in the Barents Sea since 1978 was settled when Stoltenberg and President of Russia Dimitry Medvedev signed an agreement on 27 April 2010 in Oslo. The agreement is a compromise, which divides a disputed area of around 175,000 km2 (68,000 sq mi) into two approximately equally sized parts. However, the agreement still needs ratification by the State Duma and the Parliament of Norway in order to be implemented.

In January 2011, the Stoltenberg government ordered law enforcement personnel to arrest and deport Maria Salmanova, a Russian-born writer and blogger who had lived as an undocumented immigrant in Norway since 2002, a case later known as the Maria Amelie case. It was highly covered by the press as Salmanova was gaining more support and large demonstrations were taking place; Her Facebook page has gained more than 88,000 supporters and the Norwegian Amnesty International has its own signature campaign for Maria Amalie that by 23 January 2011 had over 28,000 signatures.

Stoltenberg grew up in a political family. His father, Thorvald Stoltenberg, is one of the most prominent politicians in Norway and a former Foreign Minister; his mother Karin Stoltenberg was a junior minister. The late Marianne Heiberg, married to former Foreign Minister Johan Jørgen Holst, was his aunt on his mother's side. Stoltenberg is married to the diplomat Ingrid Schulerud and has two children, Axel Stoltenberg and Catharina Stoltenberg. He was raised in the Waldorf Education system as formulated by Rudolf Steiner, and educated at the Oslo katedralskole and the University of Oslo. He likes to spend his summer vacations on the Hvaler Islands in the Oslo fjord. In the winter he is an active cross-country skiier. He has two sisters: Camilla, a medical researcher and administrator who is one year older than he; and Nini who is four years younger. Nini is a recovering heroin addict, and the Norwegian media have covered the family's efforts to cope with this challenge. 

Radical teen years

Stoltenberg's first steps into politics came when he was in his early teens and was influenced by his sister Camilla, who at the time was a member of the then Marxist-Leninist group Red Youth. Opposition to the Vietnam War was his triggering motivation. Following raids of heavy bombing against the North Vietnamese port city Hai Phong at the end of the Vietnam War, he participated in protest rallies targeting the United States Embassy in Oslo. He threw stones at the building and breaking several windows. He escaped arrest by the police, though several of his friends were caught.

The parking incident

In 2001, shortly after he had quit after his first term as prime minister, Stoltenberg gained some negative media attention when he crashed with a parked car in a parking lot. According to an eye witness, an employee of the Norwegian High Command with a security clearance, Stoltenberg went over to check on the other car twice, and the eye witness thought he fastened a note to the windscreen of the damaged car. Then Stoltenberg took off in his car, a Saab 9-3 leased to the Labour Party, and the High Command employee approached the damaged vehicle to check what had been written on the note that was clamped under the windscreen wiper but discovered it was just a blank parking receipt. The damages to the parked car amounted to NOK 8,000 (about US $1,300). The day after the story broke in the media Stoltenberg said he had made a blunder which he regretted. He explained not leaving a notice with having been unable to find a pen.

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