Military and secondary The Norwegian army started using Gardermoen as a camp in 1740, although it was called
Fredericksfeldt until 1788. It was first used by the
cavalry, then by the
dragoons and in 1789 by the riding marines. The base was also taken into use by the infantry from 1834 and by the artillery from 1860. Tents were solely used until 1860, when the first barracks and stalls were taken into use. Insulated buildings were built around 1900, allowing the camp to be used year-round. By 1925, the base had eleven camps and groups of buildings. The first flight at Gardermoen happened in 1912, and Gardermoen became a station for military flights. During the
occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, the
Luftwaffe took over Gardermoen, and built the first proper airport facilities with hangars and two crossing runways, both long. After
World War II, the airport was taken over by the Norwegian Air Force and made the main air station. Three fighter and one transport squadron were stationed at Gardermoen. In 1972, capacity restraints forced the authorities to move all charter traffic from Fornebu to Gardermoen. However, SAS and Braathens SAFE were allowed to keep their charter services from Fornebu, so they would not have to operate from two bases. A former hangar was converted to a terminal building and in 1974 passenger numbers were at 269,000 per year. In 1978, SAS started a weekly flight to New York. In 1983, further restrictions were enforced, and also SAS and Braathens SAFE had to move their charter operations to Gardermoen, increasing passenger numbers that year to 750,000. Several expansions of runway were made after the war, and by the 1985-extension the north–south runway was .
Localization debate The first airports to serve Oslo were
Kjeller Airport which opened in 1912 and
Gressholmen Airport which served seaplanes after its opening in 1926. Norway's first airline,
Det Norske Luftfartrederi, was founded in 1918 and the first scheduled flights were operated by
Deutsche Luft Hansa to Germany with the opening of Gressholmen. In 1939, a new combined sea and land airport opened at
Fornebu. It was gradually expanded, with a runway capable of jet aircraft opening in 1962 and a new terminal building in 1964. But due to its location on a peninsula about from the city center and close to large residential areas, it would not be possible to expand the airport sufficiently to meet all foreseeable demands in the future. Following the 1972 decision to move charter traffic to Gardermoen, politicians were forced to choose between a "divided solution" that planners stated would eventually force all international traffic to move to Gardermoen, or to build a new airport. Gardermoen had been proposed as the main airport for Oslo and Eastern Norway as early as 1946, both by the local newspaper
Romerikes Blad and by
Ludvig G. Braathen, who had just founded Braathens SAFE. In 1970, a government report recommended that a new main airport be built at
Hobøl, but stated that the time was still not right. The areas were therefore reserved. During the 1970s, it became a political priority by the socialist and center parties to reduce state investments in Eastern Norway to stimulate growth in rural areas. In 1983, parliament voted to keep the divided solution permanently and expand Fornebu with a larger terminal. By 1985, traffic had increased so much that it became clear that by 1988 all international traffic would have to move to Gardermoen. The areas at Hobøl had been freed up, and a government report was launched recommending that a new airport be built at Gardermoen, although an airport at
Hurum had also been surveyed. However, the report did not look into the need of the Air Force that was stationed at Gardermoen and was therefore rejected by the parliament the following year. In 1988, a majority of the government chose Hurum as their preferred location, and the Minister of Transport
Kjell Borgen withdrew from his position. In 1989, new weather surveys from Hurum showed unfavorable conditions. There were large protests from meteorologists and pilots who stated that the surveys were manipulated. Two government committees were appointed, and both concluded that there were no irregularities in the surveys. Since Hurum could no longer be used, the government again recommended Gardermoen as the location. The
Conservative Party instead wanted to build at Hobøl, but chose to support the Labour Party government's proposal to get a new airport as quickly as possible. Parliament passed legislation to build the new main airport at Gardermoen on 8 August 1992. At the same time, it was decided that a high-speed railway was to be built to Gardermoen, so the airport would have a 50% public transport market share. The choice of Gardermoen has spurred controversy, also after the matter was settled in parliament. In 1994, Engineer
Jan Fredrik Wiborg, who claimed that falsified weather reports had been made, died after falling from a hotel window in Copenhagen. Circumstances about his death were never fully cleared up and documents about the weather case disappeared. The
Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs held a hearing about the planning process trying to identify any irregularities. An official report was released in 2001.
Construction To minimize the effect of using state grants to invest in Eastern Norway, parliament decided that the construction and operation of the airport was to be done by an independent limited company that would be wholly owned by the Civil Airport Administration (Avinor). This model was chosen to avoid having to deal with public trade unions and to ensure that the construction was not subject to annual grants. This company was founded in 1992 as Oslo Hovedflyplass AS, but changed its name in 1996 to Oslo Lufthavn. From 1 January 1997, it also took over the operation of Oslo Airport, Fornebu. The company was established with NOK 200 million in share capital. The remaining assets were NOK 2 billion from the sale of Fornebu and NOK 900 million in responsible debt. The remaining funding would come from debt from the state. Total investments for the airport, railways and roads were NOK 22 billion, of which Oslo Lufthavn would have a debt of NOK 11 billion after completion. The first two years were used to demolish and rebuild the air station. This reduced the building area from , but gave a more functional design. Construction of the new main airport started on 13 August 1994. The western runway was already in place, and had been renovated by the Air Force in 1989. A new, eastern runway needed to be built. A hill at the airport was blown away, and the masses used to fill in where needed. The construction of the airport and railway required 13,000 man-years. 220 subcontractors were used, and working accidents were at a third of the national average, without any fatalities. The last flights to Fornebu took place on 7 October 1998. That night, 300 people and 500 truckloads transported equipment from Fornebu to Gardermoen. Oslo Airport was officially opened on 8 October 1998, with the name
Gardermoen. Parliament decided to build a
high-speed airport rail link from Oslo to Gardermoen. The
Gardermoen Line connects
Oslo Central Station (Oslo) to Gardermoen and onwards to
Eidsvoll. This line was constructed for and allows the
Flytoget train to operate from Oslo Central station to Gardermoen in nineteen minutes. Just like the airport, the railway was to be financed by the users. The
Norwegian State Railways (NSB) established a subsidiary, , which would build and own the railway line, as well as operate the airport trains. The company would borrow money from the state, and repay with the profits from operation. During construction of the
Romerike Tunnel, a leak was made that started draining the water from the lakes above. The time and cost to repair the leaks meant that the whole railway line budget was exceeded, and the tunnel would not be taken into use until 1 August 1999. Since the rest of the railway was finished, two trains (instead of the intended six), operated using more time from the opening of the new airport. The main road corridor northwards from Oslo to Gardermoen is
European Route E6. The E6 was widened to six lanes north to Hvam, and to four lanes north to Gardermoen. The E6 runs about east of the airport, so of Norwegian National Road 35 was widened to a four-lane motorway to connect the E6 to the airport. This connection cost NOK 1 billion. After the opening of the airport, National Road 35 was reconstructed west of the airport as a two-lane toll road. Also
Norwegian National Road 120 and
Norwegian National Road 174 were reconstructed.
Opening and growth Gardermoen has had considerable problems with
fog and
freezing rain, and has several times had a complete close-down. This was also a problem at Fornebu, and reported to be at Hurum as well. On average, there is super cooled rain three times per month during the winter. On 14 December 1998, a combination of freezing fog and supercooled rain caused glaze at Gardermoen. At least twenty aircraft engines were damaged by ice during take-off, and five aircraft needed to make
precautionary landings with only one working engine. In 1999,
Northwest Airlines briefly operated a flight between Oslo and
Minneapolis/
St. Paul, MN, United States, for several months, before the flight was cancelled due to poor load factors. Northwest had previously served the airport in 1987 with nonstop flights operated with
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 wide body jetliners several days a week to
New York - JFK with continuing direct service to
Memphis International Airport (MEM) and
Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP). In October 2001, the only remaining intercontinental flight, to
Newark Airport (EWR), with
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) operated
Boeing 767–300 aircraft, was discontinued, due to a slump in air travel following the
9/11 attacks. In 2004,
Scandinavian Airlines and
Continental Airlines (now
United Airlines) resumed service on this route using
Airbus A330 and
Boeing 757-200 respectively.
United Airlines suspended winter service on the route in 2015, then discontinued the service completely in 2017. Scandinavian Airlines also started a direct service from Oslo to
Miami in 2016. Also in 1999,
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) became the first Asian airline to touchdown in Oslo, commencing its first flights to the city to and from
Karachi,
Lahore and
Islamabad. The return flights had a stopover at
Copenhagen Airport before continuing onward to Pakistan.
Norwegian Air Shuttle launched flights to Bangkok, New York – JFK,
Los Angeles,
Fort Lauderdale,
Oakland (San Francisco), and
Orlando with
Boeing 787 Dreamliner jetliners and Dubai, Agadir and Marrakech with
Boeing 737-800 jets. Three more airlines began service.
Thai Airways launched service to
Bangkok,
Qatar Airways to
Doha, and Emirates to
Dubai. In 2012, the airport opened a new VIP terminal exclusively used for the royal family, the
prime minister and foreign heads of state and government. According to
EUROCONTROL, Gardermoen had the most delays per flight of all airports in Europe in July 2012. As a consequence of the delays, which apparently were caused by a lack of air traffic controllers, several airlines received
NOK 100 million in compensation from
Avinor. ==Facilities==