The airspace over southern Norway is temporarily closed – major delays in air traffic

– Significant delays are expected. Duration is currently unknown. We encourage all travelers to refer to the information they receive from their airline. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes. This is all the information we have at the moment. We will come back with more information. writes Avinor in a press release.

At Oslo Airport, the last flight took off at 6 o’clock, according to Avinor’s overview.

NTB spoke just after 6.30 with a passenger on a plane that was supposed to take off from Gardermoen, but where the pilot stated that air traffic control is down all over the country, and that the entire system is paralysed.

– Do as normal

Avinor confirms to NTB that the error occurred a little before 6.30.

– Now the airspace is closed in the whole of southern Norway due to challenges at Røyken. We are doing what we can to find the fault and get traffic moving again. It is too early to say when that will happen, says communications manager Cathrine Fuglesang Framholt in Avinor to NTB.

She asks the passengers to travel to the airports as usual.

– Do as normal if you do not receive any other message from your airline, says Framholt.

Framholt informs Bergensavisen that there are two computer systems at the control center that are not talking to each other as they should. As a result, air traffic in southern Norway cannot be managed properly, and due to safety reasons the airspace must be closed until further notice.

Will probably land

There were several planes in the airspace in southern Norway when the news came from Avinor. These planes will probably be allowed to land, says operations manager Øystein Skaar at Bergen Airport Flesland to the newspaper.

– Even if the airspace is closed, these will probably be allowed to land as normal, says Skaar.

– And then no more planes will take off until the situation is clarified, he says.

Two planes landed at Oslo Airport – one from Billund in Denmark and another from Førde – at 7.10 on Thursday morning. A number of flights are scheduled to land in the next hour. Several of these have had significantly delayed landing times, according to the airport’s overview.

Kept up to date

Norwegian’s press officer Silje Glorvigen tells VG that all their flights to and from Oslo are affected. She does not have figures on how many planes are involved.

– We keep our passengers up to date on what is happening via text message, she tells the newspaper.

Avinor is responsible for 43 state-owned airports as well as the air traffic control service for civil and military aviation in Norway.