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Ryanair to close Oslo base
Ryanair is to close its Oslo Rygge base and cuts its Norwegian traffic by 50% after the Norwegian Government confirmed the introduction of an air tax for all departing passengers.
As a result, its flights from Stansted will operate to Oslo Gardermoen instead, increasing to three times daily.
Gardermoen is Oslo’s largest international airport and it is closer to the city centre. Transfers by expres train take 22 minutes, while it takes around 50 minutes to travel from Oslo to Rygge airport.
Ryanair said it will close its Oslo Rygge base on October 29 and cancel 16 routes from Norway.
It said this will result in it carrying 900,000 fewer passengers on Norwegian routes.
Four aircraft will be moved from Norway to other Ryanair bases.
Ryanair’s flights from Vilnius will also switch to Oslo Gardermoen, and the airline will switch the eight remaining Oslo Rygge rotues to Oslo Torp.
The airline said Oslo Rygge had ‘advised it cannot sustain reduced operations’.
Ryanair’s chief commercial officer David O’Brien said:"The illogical decision of the Norwegian Government to introduce a flat rate environmentally unfriendly tax unfairly penalises passengers on efficient, green, airlines such as Ryanair in favour of passengers on high fare, half empty, gas guzzling airlines, and destroys the cost competitiveness of privately owned Oslo Rygge Airport in favour of the state owned Avinor monopoly.
" As a result, Ryanair has no choice but to close its Oslo Rygge base which will result in our Norwegian traffic being cut in half. Since Oslo Rygge has confirmed it will be unable to sustain reduced non-based services offered by Ryanair, we will move our remaining 8 Rygge routes to Oslo Torp from October 30."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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