Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Oslo Airport, Gardermoen is Norway's principal international gateway, sited some 35 km northeast of the capital on the site of a former Norwegian Army camp and wartime Luftwaffe airfield. Operated by Avinor and opened in its present form in 1998, it is now the busiest airport in Norway and the second-largest in the Nordic region, with two long parallel hard-surfaced runways equipped with ILS. For the simulator pilot it offers a full-service, heavily controlled Scandinavian hub environment alongside a co-located military air station.
Oslo Airport, Gardermoen (ICAO: ENGM, IATA: OSL) is the main international airport serving Oslo, the Norwegian capital, and is operated by Avinor through its subsidiary Oslo Lufthavn AS. It is a hub for Scandinavian Airlines and an operating base for Norwegian Air Shuttle, Norse Atlantic Airways and Widerøe, connecting to dozens of domestic and well over a hundred international destinations. The field is of interest to sim pilots both for its scale, with two long parallel precision-approach runways, and for its layered history as a military camp, wartime Luftwaffe airfield and post-war air station before becoming Norway's primary civil gateway.
The airport lies at Gardermoen, on the border of the municipalities of Nannestad and Ullensaker, in what is now Viken (historically Akershus) county, about 19 nautical miles (35 km) northeast of central Oslo. Gardermoen Air Station, operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force, is co-located on the same site, giving the airfield a mixed civil-military character. As a major international airport it sits within controlled airspace served by Approach, Director and Tower positions.
The airfield has two physical parallel runways, both hard-surfaced and lit, and both equipped with ILS. The main runway, 01L/19R, is 11,795 ft long; the parallel runway, 01R/19L, is 9,663 ft long. Field elevation is 669 ft.
Radio services include Approach (APP) on 119.975 MHz, Tower (TWR) on 118.3 MHz, Ground (GND) on 121.925 MHz, Director (DIR) on 131.35 MHz, Clearance Delivery (CLD) on 121.6 MHz, ATIS on 126.125 MHz, a miscellaneous frequency (MISC) on 131.975 MHz, Pre-flight Met Service (PMSV) on 134.175 MHz, and de-icing operations (Wingops) on 29.38 MHz. Both runways are ILS-equipped, supporting precision instrument approaches.
As a major controlled international airport, all arrivals and departures at Gardermoen are conducted under ATC instruction through Approach, Director and Tower, rather than through informal VFR circuit joining. No published local circuit-joining procedure for light traffic is given in the available sources.
The site began as a Norwegian Army camp in 1740, initially known as Fredericksfeldt until 1788, and was used successively by cavalry, dragoons, marines, infantry and artillery, with permanent barracks from 1860 and year-round insulated buildings from around 1900; by 1925 the camp comprised eleven groups of buildings. The first flight from Gardermoen took place in 1912, after which it became a military flying station. During the German occupation of Norway the Luftwaffe built the first proper airport infrastructure, including hangars and two crossing 2,000 metre runways. After the Second World War the Norwegian Air Force took over the site as its main air station, basing three fighter squadrons and one transport squadron there. Braathens SAFE set up a technical base at the field in 1946 but left two years later. Gardermoen also served as the fog-diversion reserve for Oslo Airport, Fornebu, and from 1946 to 1952 handled all intercontinental traffic before a longer runway was built at Fornebu. It also grew into a training field for the airlines and a base for general aviation, with some commercial services returning in 1960 when SAS took delivery of its first Sud Aviation Caravelle jets, too large for the Fornebu runway until it was extended in 1962; SAS briefly flew a direct New York service from Gardermoen from 1962. Capacity constraints at Fornebu saw all charter traffic move to Gardermoen in 1972, and a former hangar was converted into a terminal, with passenger numbers reaching 269,000 by 1974. SAS began a weekly New York flight in 1978, and further restrictions in 1983 forced SAS and Braathens SAFE to move their charter operations to Gardermoen as well, taking annual passengers to 750,000. Successive post-war runway extensions culminated in a 3,050 metre north-south runway by 1985. Fornebu was finally closed on 8 October 1998, when the present, entirely new Oslo Airport opened at Gardermoen at a cost of NOK 11.4 billion, becoming the sole main airport for Oslo. A further expansion with a new terminal building and a third pier opened in late April 2017.
Oslo Airport is now Norway's principal international gateway and the second-largest airport in the Nordic countries, handling around 26 million passengers in 2024. It is a hub for Scandinavian Airlines and an operating base for Norwegian Air Shuttle, Norse Atlantic Airways and Widerøe, linking Oslo to a wide network of domestic and international destinations. Gardermoen Air Station, operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force, continues to share the site, giving the airfield an ongoing military as well as civil role.
