Oslo Airport location controversy

Aviation in Oslo started in 1909, when Carl Gustav Cederström of Sweden had a flight show based at the fields at Etterstad.

Norsk Luftfartsrederi wanted to start sea plane routes from Oslo, and applied to the state to be allowed to lease 2 hectares (4.9 acres) the island Lindøya for 99 years.

The Oslo Port Authority recommended that the application be denied, since it would interfere with ship traffic and they were already negotiations with the state to purchase the island.

Kjeller was considered too far away from the city center (about 20 kilometres (12 mi), but along the mainline railway), while transport to Gressholmen needed to be done by ferry.

The politicians also wanted to have a combined land- and seaplane airport, and it had become clear that planes serving Gressholmen were interfering with ship traffic.

[4] The first proposals to use Gardermoen as a new main airport was launched by the local newspaper Romerikes Blad in 1946, who argued that Fornebu would cost too much to expand.

In 1950, the Ministry of Transport and Communications (Norway) launched a report which discussed the possibility of making Gardermoen an international airport.

This allowed jet aircraft to use the airport, and SAS started Copenhagen and Bodø flights using Sud Aviation Caravelles.

The second part of their report was launched on 7 June 1971, when the Lund Committee suggested building an airport at Hobøl, with a minority wanting it to be located at Ås; Gardermoen was proposed as the third-best solution.

In 1973, Minister of Regional Affairs Oddvar Norli from the Labour Party and Hedmark wanted the airport to be located at Mjøsa and felt that the investments to build at Hobøl would be too centralized.

During the 1980s, a new, multi-story parking house was built, and the terminal expanded a third story and with three satellites, one for SAS, one for Braathens SAFE and one for international flights.

When Johan J. Jacobsen from the Centre Party was appointed minister of transport in 1983, he tried to change the situation so the divided solution would remain permanent.

The Labor Party wanted to have an airport at Gardermoen, and stated that this would give a better balance in investments throughout Eastern Norway, and eliminate some of the commuting from Oppland and Hedmark to Oslo and Akershus.

The domestic airlines all wanted to have an airport south and west of Oslo (i.e. either Hobøl or Hurum) which would be closest to the population centers.

The report had both administrative and political deficiencies, and was rejected by parliament, in part due to a lack of covering the needs of the Air Force.

By the time the Labor Partys parliamentary leader Einar Førde started having an individual meeting with each of the dissidents, it was too late to change their minds.

But it soon became clear that there were disagreements within the Norwegian Meteorological Service (DNMI), and pilots from SAS and Braathens SAFE stated that the reports had created artificial problems and they were not believable.

The ministry then appointed a new committee with members from the University of Trondheim, Rakel Surlien, Erik Jersin and Aage J. Thunem, to look into the findings.

[20] Following the findings that Hurum was unsuitable, both of the two large airlines felt that they needed to pressure politicians to not end up with a divided solution.

In 1990, the government, with Minister of Transport Lars Gunnar Lie from the Christian Democratic Party, proposed having a new round of committees and evaluation to decide between the divided solution and a new airport at Gardermoen.

[21] When the decision was to be finalized in parliament on 8 October 1992, there was a majority, consisting of the Labor and Conservative parties, that wanted a new main airport.

The divided solution was seen as the least preferable by the airlines, who would have to operate two bases, and eventually would have to offer ground transport for transfer passengers between the two airports, located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) apart.

Following deregulation in 1994, there were not sufficient take-off and landing slots at Fornebu during the morning and afternoon rush hours to allow a new company to compete with Braathens SAFE and SAS.

[29] Gardermoen allowed this to happen, and from 1 August 1998, Color Air started with flights from Oslo, pressing down prices on domestic routes.

Other concerns were the environmental impact on the area (a large ground water basin was discovered underneath the site), and claims that bad weather would cause problems.

The weather surveys, which recommended the new airport be built at Gardermoen in place of Hurum, were questioned by civil engineer Jan Fredrik Wiborg, who was commissioned by the parliament to review the findings of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

He claimed the reports had numerous technical failings, that some of the data may have been intentionally falsified, and consequently that parliament had been deliberately misled by government officials.

Circumstances surrounding his death were never fully explained, however, and in 1999 journalists from the newspaper Aftenposten were awarded the prestigious SKUP prize for their investigation of the case.

[36][37] During 2000, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs held a public hearing about the alleged foul play during the airport planning process.

[38] The use of deicing fluids is restricted since the area underneath the airport contains one of the nation's largest uncontained quaternary aquifers (underground water systems), the Trandum delta.