STORY Sebastian Schmitz
PHOTOS Author unless noted
fornebu
THE AIRPORT LOST IN TIME
As yet another helicopter leaves the heliport with a full load of
sightseeing tourists, the next one is already hovering close by,
ready to return its passengers to the Niagara Helicopters base
the minute the helipad becomes clear.
Fornebu; The airport lost in
time
On a sunny day in June, on the
southern tip of a peninsular area
in the suburban municipality
of Bærum, Norway, people are
swimming, playing volleyball,
and enjoying a fresh ice cream.
The warm weather has brought
people out to every single beach
in the Oslo area. This particular
beach has a rich and partly
invisible history that the younger
beach crowd might not know
about at all: This was the end of
runway 24 of Oslo’s main airport
from 1939 to 1998. Fornebu was
the name of the airport, a quick
bus ride west from downtown
Oslo. Today it’s a hot spot for the
residents of Bærum and Oslo.
Background
The airport was located
five miles (8km) from the city
center. It was Norway’s biggest
airport and served as a hub
for
Scandinavian Airlines
(SAS), Braathens SAFE, and
Widerøe. In 1996, the airport
had 170,823 aircraft movements
and 10,072,054 passengers. The
airport opened as a combined
sea and land airport, serving
both domestic and international
destinations. Aviation in Oslo
can be traced back to 1909 when
a Swedish man named Carl
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Cederström offered exhibition flights from fields at
Etterstad. After hearing about the field operations,
The Norwegian Army later decided that it needed
a military land airport, and established itself at
Kjeller, outside Oslo. Kjeller Airport served as the
main airport for Norway until the 1930s and was
the main base of the newly established Norwegian
Army Air Service. In 1918, the first Norwegian
airline, Det Norske Luftfartrederi, was established
and wanted to run seaplane operations out of
Oslo. After lots of negotiations, Gressholmen Sea
Port was opened at Gressholmen outside Oslo.
Gressholmen was served by Norsk Luftfartsrederi
and Deutsche Lufthansa. Gressholmen wouldn’t
last long as during the late 1920s and early 1930s
politicians and the passengers became less satisfied
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with the solution. Kjeller was too far away from
the city center, and getting to Gressholmen would
require a ferry ride. The airport opened on June
1st, 1939. However, the first flight from the airport
was in 1938 when a Lufthansa Junkers aircraft flew
a scheduled flight to Kjeller (the existing airport
at the time) when the captain decided to fly to
the new airport to test it out. It almost ended in
tragedy as the plane took off from the taxiway,
lifting off with only meters to spare. Less than two
years later, in April 1940, the airport would be used
by Nazi Germany during the invasion of Norway.
Only a few days later the airport was bombed
by the British Royal Air Force. By orders of the
German authorities, the main north-south runway
was expanded to 1,200 meters (3,900 ft). At the
north end of the runway, the Luftwaffe built several
hangars and a prison camp. Prisoners were used to
keeping the runways free of snow during winter,
by marching along with them and stomping the
snow down. In May 1945 the Germans were ousted
from Norway, and the airport was taken over by
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the Norwegian Air Force which
started commercial operations
as none of the commercial
airlines were in operation at the
time. In 1947, Icelandair started
flights to Reykjavík and the same
year British European Airways
transferred its London route
from Gardermoen to Fornebu.
Keep in mind that Gardermoen
was a military base, and just a
small airfield until it became
Norway’s main airport in 1998.
following the political processes,
the north-south runway was
extended to 1,600 meters
(5,200 ft). With the completion
of this, intercontinental traffic
was moved from Gardermoen
to Fornebu. In 1946, Overseas
Scandinavian Airlines System
was
established
between
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DNL, DDL, and the Swedish
Aerotransport.
In
1949,
Braathens SAFE introduced
scheduled flights from Fornebu
using DC-3s. They had longhaul flights to the Far East, with
stops in Amsterdam, Geneva,
Rome, Cairo, Basra, Karachi,
Bombay, Calcutta, and Bangkok
before arriving in Hong Kong.
Following the establishment of
Scandinavian Airlines System
(SAS) in 1949, all international
concessions were transferred
to the company, and Braathens
SAFE started domestic services,
although it kept its existing
concessions on international
routes until 1954. Braathens
SAFE’s first domestic service
was via Tønsberg Airport,
Jarlsberg to Stavanger, and later
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a route to Trondheim. These
were both operated with Heron
aircraft. In 1953, work started
with expanding the north-south
runway to 1,800 meters (5,900
ft) and building a new eastwest runway which also was to
become 1,800 meters (5,900 ft).
In 1960, Finnair started flying to
Helsinki, although direct flights
were not introduced until 1971. As
air travel surged in the 1960s, it
meant more expansions needed.
A new runway was built and
took over as the main runway.
Along with this extension, a new
terminal was built, capable of
handling 2 million people a year.
In the 1970s Pan Am started flying
to New York City. New airlines
arrived such as Air France
and Swissair. Due to capacity
and runway length issues,
Gardermoen (now the main
airport, 50 km northeast of Oslo)
was used for charter flights. At
the time Gardermoen only had
one runway and used today’s
VIP terminal as a terminal. In
the 1980s new airlines started
flights to the airport. Some
include; Sabena, Alitalia, DanAir London. TWA also flew to
Fornebu for a short period of
time during construction work
at Gardermoen.
Runway
Fornebu had two runways.
The main runway 06/24 was
on 2,200 meters (7,200 ft) eastwest runway and a secondary
runway mostly used for GA
aircraft. However, it was used
when strong winds made it
necessary.
This
happened
extremely rarely, and it could
only happen once or twice a year
if not longer. 1,800 meters (5,900
ft) north-south. Under normal
weather conditions, approaches
into Fornebu were as soon as
possible, divert southwards
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along the Oslo Fjord to avoid noise pollution to
residential areas. However, when necessary, a
direct approach could be made eastwards from
Drammen or westwards from Grefsenåsen
Terminal
At the time of closing, Fornebu consisted of a
single terminal with three satellites: two domestic
and one international. Parts of the international
terminal are still there today and are used for
offices. The service building (terminal) is also there
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today. In the main hall of the
terminal were two murals made
by Kai Fjell, both of which have
been preserved and are there
today. The service building had
three stories, one for arrival,
one for departure, and one for
administration. The airplane
capacity at the airport was only
20. Five planes parked at the
international terminal could be
served with jet bridges, while
passengers had to walk outdoors
to get to domestic planes. The
airport terminals were 36,000
square meters (390,000 sq ft),
of which 16,000 square meters
(170,000 sq ft) were for the
public.
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Accidents
On
23
December
1972,
Braathens SAFE Flight 239, a
Fokker F-28 from Ålesund to
Oslo, crash landed in a forest
near Asker during approach
to Fornebu. Forty people were
killed, only five people survived.
This was the first-ever fatal
accident with an F-28, and until
1989 the deadliest air accident in
Norway.
On January 30th 1973 SK370,
a SAS DC-9-21 overran the
runway at Fornebu. The plane
was headed to Alta via Tromsø,.
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The captain wanted to abort
the takeoff, but the plane didn’t
manage to stop in time and
overrun into the icy Oslo-fjord.
After a while the plane sank
through the ice. No one died, or
had any injuries from the crash.
today the throttle quadrant from
the plane is at the SAS-museum
at Oslo Gardermoen Airport.
On 21 June 1985, Braathens
SAFE Flight 139, a Boeing 737200 with origin from Trondheim
Airport, Værnes with destination
to Fornebu was hijacked by a
drunk student who demanded
to talk to the prime minister and
minister of justice. The plane
landed safely at Fornebu, and the
hijacker eventually surrendered
his gun in exchange for a cold
beer. No-one was injured in the
incident.
Workforce
Looking at 1989 employer
papers from Avinor, about
5,500
people
worked
at
Fornebu. Of these, 3,600
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worked
for
the
airlines,
including
ground
services.
The
airport
administration
had 350 employees, including
administration, air traffic control,
firefighters, meteorology, and
maintenance
workers.
The
remaining 500 worked for other
public offices, including the
police and customs officers,
as well as service employees
working for private companies
involved with passenger services.
Low Pass with Concord and
broken windows
The author’s grandfather used
to work as an air traffic controller
at Fornebu. In the mid-1980s a
British Airways Concorde visited
Gardermoen, and the controllers
at Fornebu wanted to see the
plane with their own eyes. They
asked the pilots on the British
Airways flight if they could do a
lowpass and circle around the
airport. The pilots said yes and
when the plane came closer they
introduced the afterburners
breaking multiple windows. No
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pictures were taken that day as
one of the ATCs had to drop the
camera to cover his eyes.
End insight
At the beginning of the
1990s, the end was in sight for
Fornebu as an airport. With
many new airlines wanting to
fly into Fornebu such as Delta
and Northwest as well as SAS
and Braathens expanding their
international
network,
the
capacity at Fornebu had reached
its limit. Already in the 1960s,
a few political debates were
concerned about whether to
build a new main airport for the
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greater Oslo area as Fornebu had
very little expanding potential.
A new plan for a new main
airport was started in the 1970s.
It was later decided to go for
either Hurum or Gardermoen.
However,
weather
data
revealed later that Hurum was
unsuitable due to fog and wind.
Gardermoen was chosen and
with it already being an existing
airport the building process was
easier. Ironically, Gardermoen
is known as a place where fog is
common, especially during fall.
Closedown
On October 7th, 1998 Fornebu
had its last departure. SK333 An
SAS MD82 and the first to wear
the new livery at the time took
off towards Bergen Flesland
Airport, marking the end of an
era. The opening of Gardermoen
had a 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,
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since no new airlines could
establish themselves and no
new international airlines could
fly to Fornebu. Gardermoen
allowed this to happen. Just look
at Norwegian Air today as one
example.
Redevelopment
Today Fornebu has almost
turned into a suburban city of
its own, with new residential
areas and large, architecturally
interesting headquarters for
some of Norway’s biggest
companies, like telecom giant
Telenor and oil and gas company
Equinor.
The taxiways and runways
might be gone, however many
buildings such as hangars and
old terminals are still there. One
of the office buildings has kept
the prominent, original 1967
mural in the main terminal by
artist Kai Fjeld after Norway’s
Directorate of Cultural Heritage
stepped in to avoid it being taken
down. They have even kept a
part of the old runway close to
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the end of runway 24/ beginning
of 06, and with the creative use
of landscaping kept the path of
the runway visible between the
trees and walkways. This is very
popular amongst kids and also
grown adults as you walk by it
on the way to the beach.
Fornebu was an airport loved
by everyone. Small and easy to
navigate, it also had one of the
most beautiful approaches found
in Europe. In 22 years the area
has gone from an aviation area
to an idyllic, modern smalltown.
If you don’t know the history, it’s
just another great day on the
beach at Fornebu. If you know
where to look, the spirit of the
airport still lays there. 22 years
later.
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