Bergen Airport, Flesland

Construction The first aircraft to operate in Bergen was a demonstration flight by Carl Gustav Cederström on 25 September 1911. The same year, a new terminal building opened. A SAS service to New York from Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, was introduced in 1974, and gradually the service was reduced, in part because of the increased range of newer aircraft. Demilitarization and deregulation of Norwegian Air Shuttle at a domestic gate; the control tower in the background Dash 8 with Scandinavian Airlines and KLM Boeing 737 in the background The current terminal opened in 1988, was also designed by Halfdan Grieg and cost NOK 250 million. This was followed up with a new control tower which opened in 1991. By the mid-1980s there were 35 to 40 daily offshore helicopter flights out of Flesland each day. This was causing a press on the runway's capacity as the helicopters had to cross the runway to reach the North Sea. As estimates showed up to 60 flights per day, the airport started working on plans for a separate helicopter terminal, which would have been located southwest of the old main terminal and would have its own helicopter runway. Instead the traffic flatted out and the old main terminal was converted to a helicopter terminal. Within two years it had secured a thirty-percent market share of the offshore traffic. However, the airline was taken over by Helikopter Service in 1993. With the ending of the Cold War following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the military activity at Flesland diminished. The domestic airline market was deregulated on 1 April 1994, so airlines no longer needed a concession to operate domestic routes. The immediate consequence was an increase of the number of flights by Braathens SAFE to Oslo. The following price war on the route saw lower ticket prices and increased capacity. Color Air filed for bankruptcy on 27 September 1999, ending a price war which had cost the airlines NOK 3 billion. The final demise of the air station came in 1999, when all stationary assets were sold, including 30 vehicles. The daily operation of the air station was transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy, who have six employees at the base. Flesland Air Station has since only held mobilization status and will only be used by the air force in case of war and larger emergencies. A new secondary surveillance radar was built between 1999 and 2001 at Sotra. Within months, Norwegian started a low-cost route to Gardermoen. SAS Commuter took over Norwegian's regional routes in 2003. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute closed its office at the airport in 2003 and all meteorological observations have since been carried out by Avinor. The airline changed its name back to Scandinavian Airlines in 2007. The international arrival section was expanded with in 2005, followed by an extra story over part of the terminal, used as offices and allowed a doubling of the size of the duty-free. The helicopter terminal was renovated in 2009. From May to September 2022, United Airlines offered service to Newark. ==Facilities==

The main terminal covers an area of , of which is used for passenger areas. The terminal has reached its capacity for simultaneous passengers, and especially security, check-in, arrival hall and baggage handling have limited space. The shop has also been criticized for informing passengers who purchase less than their permitted tax-free quota of alcohol that they are allowed to purchase more. The Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs indicated that this may violate the ban on alcohol advertising. The gates at the new terminal are numbered B15 to B20. They are served by domestic flights. International flights depart from the older 1988 terminal which has 9 jet bridges, numbered 23 through 29, 31 and 32. Gate 30, next to gate 29, is used for apron buses. Gate 24 has the largest parking space and can take category E aircraft (such as the Airbus A340 and Boeing 747), the rest are category C (such as Boeing 737 and Airbus A320). Gates 28 to 32 can be configured to serve domestic flights as well as international flights. The helicopter terminal is located in the old terminal from the airport's opening and covers an area of . There are nine helicopter stands, of which six are outside the terminal building. The control tower is next to the helicopter terminal and has an area of . It lacks visual sight lines to stands south of the terminal, the de-icing and parts of the taxiway. Nearby is the fire station; the building is also used for offices. There are a series of other hangars and buildings at the airport, owned by various airlines, ground handling companies, aviation clubs and general aviation companies. The airport has a single runway numbered 17–35 (roughly north–south). The runway has shoulders on each side and has between the touchdown points. The runway has a parallel taxiway (Y), with nine intersections. There is also a taxiway further in along between the terminal and technical area (W). There are six intersections between W and Y, one of which leads to the military area. There is instrument landing system (ILS) category I on both directions. The airport has an airport surveillance radar; there are both a surveillance radar and a backup radar located on Sotra. The runway has a capacity of maximum twenty landings and twenty departures per hour. The runway, main taxiway and all areas to the north of the civil aviation area are owned by the military. Flesland Air Station no longer has stationed aircraft, but there is activity in several of the military installations. Flesland is occasionally used during exercises. The military has indicated that it may choose to sell its estate at the airport in the future. Avinor and the military have initiated a process that may result in the runway and taxiway being transferred to Avinor ownership. ==Airlines and destinations==

As of June 2023, Bergen Airport serves 63 destinations in regular services and 28 seasonal or charter destinations primarily during the summer. In addition, offshore oil platforms are served from the helicopter terminal. Twenty-three airlines operate regular flights out of Flesland. They are served by two ground handling agents, SAS Ground Services and Norport Handling. The largest airlines at Flesland are Scandinavian Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Widerøe. SAS and Norwegian exclusively operate jetliners on main-haul international and domestic routes. Widerøe operates the routes to Florø, Sogndal and Ørsta–Volda on public service obligation contract with the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The airline's remaining routes are commercial. Bergen Air Transport is based at Flesland, and offers general aviation and executive jet operations. Bristow Norway and CHC Helikopter Service operate to offshore oil platforms from the helicopter terminal. Lufttransport transport maritime pilots to ships on behalf of the Norwegian Coastal Administration. ==Traffic==

In 2014, Bergen Airport had 6,078,589 passengers, 106,225 aircraft movements and 5,199 tonnes of cargo, making it the country's second-busiest airport. The passenger numbers consisted of 3,669,600 domestic scheduled, 2,162,781 international scheduled, 138,252 transit passengers, and 246,208 helicopter passengers. Sixty-four percent of the airport's domestic traffic was business, compared to thirty-five percent for international flights. Seventy-one percent of the international traffic was generated by people living in Norway. For domestic flights, SAS has a market share of 46 percent, Norwegian 38 percent, Widerøe 15 percent and others 1 percent. For international flights, Norwegian has a market share of 36 percent, SAS 23 percent, KLM 18 percent, Lufthansa 9 percent and others 15 percent. In comparison, in 2003 SAS had a market share of 71 percent for international routes and 78 percent for domestic routes. In 2011, the Oslo–Bergen route had 1,680,000 passengers, making it the second busiest route in Norway (after Oslo–Trondheim). The routes from Bergen to Stavanger and Trondheim are the busiest routes in Norway which do not operate through Oslo. Norwegian and SAS nearly split the Oslo market evenly, although SAS has 54 percent of the business market and Norwegian 58 percent of the leisure market. Since 2003, the percentage of passengers traveling from Bergen who are dependent on transferring abroad before reaching their ultimate destination has fallen from about 60 percent to below 40 percent. ==Ground transport==

Flesland is located along National Road 580, about from the city center and about 30 minutes drive. Avinor has 3,500 parking spaces at the airport, of which 1,500 are in a parking garage. An additional 700 parking spaces are provided by the private Flesland Parkering; although located further away, it provides a shuttle bus service to the terminal. The airport has five car rental companies with a combined fleet of 100 vehicles. The Bergen Light Rail has its final stop at the airport and opened in April 2017. Tide's coaches have a travel time of about 20 minutes, and operate every 10 minutes. They alternate operating via Fjøsanger and Fyllingsdalen, At Flesland Quay, connected to the airport by shuttle bus, there are several fast ferry services to Austevoll, Sunnhordland, Haugesund and Stavanger. Four taxi companies operate at the airport. The modal distribution of ground transport is 21 percent use bus, 31 percent use taxis, 27 percent are driven by others and 20 percent use their own car. This is less than half the public transport share of Trondheim and almost a third of Gardermoen, but much higher than Stavanger. ==Accidents and incidents==

A helicopter crashed on Turøy near Bergen on 29 April 2016, when flying from the Gullfaks B oil platform to the Bergen Airport. It was a Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma. All thirteen people on board (two crew, 11 passengers) were killed in the crash. ==Future==

Avinor is currently in the final stages of building a new terminal building immediately southeast of the current terminal. Based on a design by Narud Stokke Wiig Arkitekter og Planleggere (now Nordic — Office of Architecture), it is scheduled for completion in 2016 and is estimated to have sufficient capacity until 2026. In addition to larger terminal capacity, it will give the airport six new gates. The runway is considered upgraded to ILS Cat II or III, which will allow for landing during less visibility. There are only a few minor investments needed for the upgrade. Avinor estimates that there will be a need for a second runway at about the mid-2030s. The runway can be located on the current military area and be entirely located north of the terminal area. This would allow a runway, which would be sufficient for Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft. The master plan of 2011 includes plans for expanding the new terminal by placing gates on both sides of the pier and building a new pier to the north, by demolishing the current terminal. By Phase 3C, which is estimated to be carried out by 2060, the airport will have 32 gates and 14 additional apron stands. The last phases of the long-term plan involve demolishing the current terminal and the airport hotel. The Norwegian State Railways has looked at the possibility of building a mainland railway airport rail link from Bergen Station in the city center. The proposal was launched as a response to the idea that a new freight terminal be built at Flesland. If built, the line would run in a tunnel through Løvstakken and travel time would be twenty minutes. ==Gallery==

File:Bergen Lufthavn, Flesland (Bergen Airport, BGO) Terminal 3 avgangshall departure hall NORWAY 2017-11-02 b.jpg|Departure area File:Bergen Lufthavn, Flesland (Bergen Airport, BGO) Terminal 3 avgangshall departure hall NORWAY 2017-11-02 a.jpg|Departure area File:Bergen? sign from Bergen Airport.jpg|Big sign outside of the airport File:Bergen Airport light rail station.jpg|Light rail station underneath the airport terminal File:Scandic Flesland Airport, hotel Bergen, Norway 2017-10-19.jpg|Scandic Hotel at Flesland ==References==