The government gives millions to Norway’s only state aviation subject at UiT – NRK Troms and Finnmark

Flaps – checked and set

Stand by instruments – checked

Flight directors – off

Niklas Strusshamn Andersen (23) goes through the long checklist he has gone through so many times before.

Short messages go over the connection with the tower at Bardufoss Airport. All in English.

The only public pilot training in Norway has, despite its popularity, struggled to stay afloat.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will soon present the government’s proposal for a revised national budget for 2024. Here they propose an additional allocation of NOK 7.5 million this year.

This means that UiT can admit twelve new students this autumn.

– This is fantastic news, says UiT rector Dag Rune Olsen.

– Gets the boyish feeling in the cockpit

Back at Bardufoss, the student pilot starts the engine of the four-seater propeller plane. The checklist has been reviewed and approved. The runway is ready.

The plane quickly picks up speed, and in a short time it is airborne.

The sun shines from an almost cloudless sky. Istindan is still dressed in his snow suit.

A familiar, but just as beautiful, sight for Niklas and the instructor who has taken this flight route often.

Today they fly to Senja.

It is just over a year since Niklas got behind the controls of the school plane for the first time.

– You always get that boyish feeling when you have made everything ready for take off and put the throttles on full blast and fly away. You still get a little tickle in the stomach, he says.

Now he has just under eight flying hours left before he can call himself traffic plane.

It is UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, which offers bachelor in aviation. The first year is in Tromsø, the last two in the aviation environment at Bardufoss in Indre Troms.

More money from the government

The UiT rector has pointed out at a board meeting that education must have its state funding strengthened by NOK 15 million per year if it is to be viable.

This year there was a risk that UiT could not admit new students. Last year, the 126 applicants were told that there was no admission.

The announcement that the government is granting an extra NOK 7.5 million will have an impact on the admission of students in the autumn.

– This means that we can operate in 2024 in a good way. And there are expectations, which I believe will be met, of continued funding in 2025 and the years to come, says rector Dag Rune Olsen.

He says the increased funding is crucial for the future of the study programme.

– Part of the reason for that is that it is expensive to run a flight school. We need a flight fleet and skilled instructors who can largely work with individual students. It is a rather expensive, lavish and important education, says the principal.

Research and Higher Education Minister Oddmund Løksengard Hoel (Sp) says it is important for the government to ensure public education for pilots in Norway.

– We need pilots. The short-haul network is very important to us. We depend on, among other things, training Widerøe pilots who can fly on the short-haul network, says Hoel.

He refers to the government’s increased investment in the new Long-Term Plan for the Armed Forces (LTP), and that it is important to secure the civil-military cooperation at Bardufoss going forward. Whether the additional allocation will be continued in next year’s national budget, it is too early to say anything about now.

– But it is of course in this that we now guarantee continued permanent operation, says the minister.

Unique education in arctic conditions

Inside UiT’s premises at Bardufoss, the cohort that started in autumn 2022 has gathered around the table for a weather briefing. Because the weather has a lot to say when flying, not least in the north.

– The industry says they appreciate offers like this where pilots are trained to learn how to read weather situations in Northern Norway. A lot of the lessons are also learned when you can’t fly, says Håvard Grønli.

The future pilot from Tromsø thinks it is good that the government will ensure the continued operation of the education, and believes it is important to have a public study offer.

– I think you pick up other types of people who want to become pilots, but who might not have taken the education if they couldn’t get the support up here. It is good for diversity in the pilot industry, the student believes.

It is no coincidence that public education is offered in the north of the country.

– We train people who can both plan and conduct operations in arctic conditions and can actually fly in northern Norway, says Principal Olsen.

For Grønli, the dream is to fly the air ambulance.

– There is something about being able to combine flying with helping people, and being able to fly at many cool airports here in Northern Norway, he says.

The dream of fellow student Iman Bellemkhannate from Oslo is to fly the world’s largest passenger plane Airbus A380 for Emirates. She believes that having experience from flying in arctic conditions is a strength.

– I feel we have more focus on weather than perhaps what you have where the weather is always nice. You learn to make good judgments, she says.

– Norway needs pilots

– This means that the employees get predictability, the students get the predictability they need and Norway gets the pilots we desperately need.

This is what the Storting representative for Troms, Nils Foshaug (Ap), says about the additional allocation proposed by the government.

He says it is important for the aviation environment in Troms that the training is secure in the future. At Bardufoss, there is currently flight training for technical personnel, as well as the university’s and the armed forces’ pilot training. The maritime helicopter wing also belongs here.

– Bardufoss has one of Europe’s most competent aviation environments, says Foshaug.

Back in the air over Troms. Niklas Strusshamn Andersen has turned the plane over Senja and headed back to Bardufoss.

Not long after, he goes in for landing, and the airplane wheels calmly and controlled hit the runway. Now he is looking for a job, and hopes to be a pilot on a passenger plane in Norway.

– We learn to fly in rather bad weather conditions, both in terms of icing and wind. It is something the industry will hopefully appreciate, he says.

Andersen also thinks it is good that the government wants to increase the grant to UiT, so that more people get the same opportunity as him.

– This is a very expensive education if you are to take it privately, and this means that not everyone gets that opportunity if you do not have a government offer. This means that you get a larger group of applicants, he says.

He has parked the plane for the day. Now it is ready for a new student.

– It is clear that Norway needs pilots. Norway is an elongated country, we cannot manage without that air traffic. Up here in the north especially, airplanes are the alpha and omega for people to be able to live in the rural areas, says the soon-to-be-completed traffic pilot.

Which may soon be coming to an airport near you.