Oslo Airport, Fornebu (IATA: FBU, ICAO: ENFB) (Norwegian: Oslo lufthavn, Fornebu) was the main airport serving Oslo and Eastern Norway from 1 June 1939 to 7 October 1998. It was then replaced by Oslo Airport, Gardermoen and the area has since been redeveloped. The airport was located at Fornebu in Bærum, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the city center. Fornebu had two runways, one 2,370-metre (7,780 ft) 06/24 and one 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) 01/19, and a capacity of 20 aircraft. In 1996, the airport had 170,823 aircraft movements and 10,072,054 passengers. The airport served as a hub for Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), Braathens SAFE and Widerøe. In 1996, they and 21 other airlines served 28 international destinations. Due to limited terminal and runway capacity, intercontinental and charter airlines used Gardermoen. The Royal Norwegian Air Force retained offices at Fornebu.During the 1960s, a political debate started concerning whether or not a new main airport should be built for Oslo and Eastern Norway. A government report launched in 1970, suggested surveys for five locations: Gardermoen, Hurum, Askim, Nesodden and Ås. Hobøl was preliminarily selected and areas reserved for a future airport. During the 1970s, the Labour Party became concerned that Hobøl was located too centrally in relation to the growth areas around Oslo, and instead wanted to use Gardermoen, in an attempt to force the population growth further north. Commercial interests and the airlines supported Hobøl. In 1983, Parliament decided to abandon the plans for Hobøl and continue with a divided solution. Fornebu would be expanded, and all charter traffic be moved to Gardermoen. From 1988, all international traffic would also be moved, making Fornebu a pure domestic airport. Increased traffic in the mid-1980s changed the politician's interests, and in 1988 Parliament voted to build a new main airport at Hurum, located on the same side of Oslo as Fornebu, but further away. However, new weather data showed that Hurum was unsuitable, and the location was discarded. There were accusations that the data was fabricated to manipulate the political decision. In 1992, parliament made a final vote that started construction of a new airport at Gardermoen and Fornebu would be closed. Financing of the airport at Gardermoen would be done through a state loan issued to a limited company owned by the Civil Airport Administration. This company would build and operate Gardermoen, but from 1 January 1997 it also took over operation of Fornebu. After the last plane took off from Fornebu on 7 October 1998, 300 people spent the night to transport 500 truckloads of equipment from Fornebu to Gardermoen. The new Oslo Airport, Gardermoen opened on the morning of 8 October 1998. Some locals wanted to keep Fornebu as a regional airport for the Oslo and Bærum area. The proposal was launched involved keeping part of the runway and terminals and allowing aircraft such as Dash 8, Fokker 50 and British Aerospace 146 to use the airport. Proponents argued that a similar role was used for Stockholm-Bromma Airport and Chicago's Midway Airport. The opening of Gardermoen had strategic impact on aviation in Norway. Despite the deregulation of the market in 1994, the lack of free slots at Fornebu made it impossible to have free competition, since no new airlines could establish themselves and no new international airlines could fly to Fornebu. Gardermoen allowed this to happen, and from 1 August 1998, Color Air started with flights from Oslo, pressing down prices on domestic routes. Although the airline went bankrupt the following year, the losses for Braathens were so high that they were taken over by SAS. The gap was then filled by Norwegian Air Shuttle.

• published: 19 Sep 2013
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