Fornebu

59°53'52"N 010°37'24"E

runway: 01/19 - 1800m/5900ft - asphalt
runway: 06/24 - 2370m/7776ft - asphalt

Fornebu airfield (Norwegian: Oslo lufthavn, Fornebu, also known as Oslo Airport, Fornebu , ICAO: ENFB) was an airfield 8 kilometers southwest of Oslo.
The airfield was built from 1938 and it opened in June 1939. The first aircraft to officially land at the airport was a KLM DC-2 from Amsterdam, although a Lufthansa Ju-52/3m-see of Luft Hansa had used the waterside of the airfield almost a year earlier, in September 1938.
Nazi Germany seized the airport during the 9 AApril 1940 invasion by simply flying in Ju-52 transports unhindered. A KLM aircraft scheduled to take off for Amsterdam that morning was ordered to remain at the airfield, and the crew was send back to its hotel in Oslo. On 12 April the RAF bombed the airfield and two days later the KLM aircraft was allowed to return to Amsterdam, albeit without passengers.
Although the Germans continued to operate from the airfield, finshed construction and even lengthened its main runway, it was never again attacked in any serious way.
The airfield was simply too far away from all the main battlegrounds.


Ju52/3m-see of Det Norske Luftfartselskap (DNL) at Fornebus waterside in 1939 (Wikipedia).


This KLM Douglas DC-2 (PH-AKI 'Kieviet') was the first plane to land at Oslo Airport, Fornebu during the official opening on 1 June 1939 (Wikipedia).


Oslo Airport, Fornebu on opening day: 1 July 1939. In the background a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 aircraft from Det Danske Luftfartselskab, the first aircraft to take off from the new airport (Wikipedia).


Control tower in 1940, as shown at oslobilder.no, licenced under Creative Commons 3.0


Luftwaffe Junkers G 38, Junkers Ju 52, Junkers Ju 90, Junkers W 34, and Heinkel He 111 at Fornebu in April 1940 (Bundesarchiv, via Wikipedia).


Map of the airfield in 1940

After the Germans were defeated in May 1945 the airfield was taken over by the Allies and the Royal Norwegian Air Force. As there weren't any civilian airlines in operation yet the Air Force began flying commercial flights. A route was started to northern Norway, but because of the weather it had to be terminated for the winter. Lack of qualified personnel meant that international flights had to be suspended too.
Technical developments during the war meant that the airfield had to expand, as its runways were too short (1200m/3900ft) to handle DC-4s. In 1946 plans were announced to lengthen the runway and build an entirely new additional runway. The Norwegian government intervened however, and took control of the entire airfield (without compensation) later that year. They decided that the majority of flights were to be transferred to Gardermoen, north of Oslo. Fornebu's proximity to Oslo proved to be vital however, and the airfield remained open and expanded in spite of Gardermoen. Its north-south runway was lengthened to 1600meters (5200ft) and international traffic was moved back to Fornebu.

Expansion of the international network was quick, with several international airlines operating to Fornebu. In 1953, work started on the expansion of the north–south runway (to 1800 meters/5,900 ft) and construction of a new east–west runway of the same length. A commission, established that same year, proposed to extend the east-west runway to 3300m/10800ft andf the north-south to 2150m/7050ft. Opposition from local residents reduced the plans to an east-west expansion to 2200m/7200ft, although plans allowed for a further extension, if required.
From 1959, the ministry denied jet aircraft from using the then longer north-south runway. After 1962, the east–west runway became the main runway, for which purpose it was expanded. Along with the runway expansion, a new service building with a capacity for 2 million passengers, was opened in 1964. The new building had two stories, one for arrivals and one for departures, and two wings, one for domestic and one for international flights. It included a central hall that had a panorama view over the aircraft.
From 1971, charter flights were moved to Gardermoen, although SAS and Braathens SAFE were granted dispensation so they only needed to serve one Oslo airport. In 1983, also charter flights operated by SAS and Braathens were forced to move to Gardermoen.

In spite of all the moves to Gardermoen, the number of destinations served kept rising. New international services were introduced, such as Sabena to Brussels in 1985, Dan-Air to London-Gatwick and Newcastle in 1986 and Alitalia to Milan in 1988. During a period of reconstruction at Gardermoen, Trans World Airlines also served Fornebu, in the same year Pan American reintroduced its route to New York, and Air Europe started to fly from London-Gatwick to Fornebu. To cope with increasing passenger numbers an extra storey was added to the terminal building. Two satellites were built for the domestic terminal, one each for Braathens SAFE and SAS, allowing increased waiting area for travelers. In 1994, the domestic and international flights to the European Union were deregulated and the number of international services increased again, with Fornebu receiving airlines such as Air Malta, Air Portugal, AirUK and LOT Polish Airlines.

With the airport located on a peninslua, space had always been a concern. During the 1960s a debate was begun on a new airport for Oslo. A site proposed in the 1970s was ultimately discarded on political grounds in 1983. From 1988 Gardermoen was to become Oslos international airport and Fornebu was to be a pure domestic airfield. In 1988 Norways parliament voted differently however, insisting on a new airport. Allegations that data on its suitablity had been fabricated led to yet another decision in 1992. Gardermoen would become the new Oslo airport, and Fornebu would be closed and redeveloped. The company operating Gardermoen became the operator of Fornebu during its final 9 months in operation. After the last plane took off from Fornebu, 300 people spent the night to transport 500 truckloads of equipment from Fornebu to Gardermoen. Gardermoen opened as the new Oslo Airport on the morning of 8 October 1998.


Close-up photo of the abandoned Fornebu airfield - facing northeast (copyright Telenor a.s. via innotrans.net)

Some locals wanted to keep Fornebu as a regional airport for the Oslo and Bærum area. The proposal was launched involved keeping part of the runway and terminals and allowing aircraft such as Dash 8, Fokker 50 and British Aerospace 146 to use the airport. An argument was made that a similar role was used for Stockholm-Bromma Airport and Chicago's Midway Airport. This was not to be however.
The move to Gardermoen had a strategic impact on Norwegian aviation. Despite deregulation of the market in 1994, the lack of free slots at Fornebu made it impossible to have free competition, since no new airlines could establish themselves and no new international airlines could fly to Fornebu. Gardermoen allowed this to happen, and from 1 August 1998, Color Air started with flights from Oslo, pressing down prices on domestic routes. Although the airline went bankrupt the following year, the losses for Braathens SAFE were so high that they were taken over by SAS. The gap left by Braathens SAFE was then filled by Norwegian Air Shuttle. Today the lands used by the airfield are under redevelopment as housing estates. Every year less remains of the former airfield. One of the buildings that still exists is the tower, which is now a café.
The airfield has not fully shut down however, as the waterside airfield (called Sjøflyhavna Kro) has remained active until this day.


One of two control towers at the airport in the warm afternoon sun February 2011. The tower now houses Cafe Odonata (Gunnar Maehlum).


The terminal building for Sjøflyhavna Kro in 2010.


A Fonnafly Cessna 206 floatplane LN-FOO at Sjøflyhavna Kro in the summer of 2011 (Gunnar Maehlum).
Interestingly, the registration LN-FOO originally belonged to a Fred Olsen/DHL Lockheed Electra in 1999, which was sold to the US as N590HG.