Airline traffic mostly back to normal

Norwegian air space and airports were all open on Wednesday with traffic expected to mostly keep “running as normal” throughout the day, according to aviation officials. Some closures in Europe forced various flight cancellations and delays, though, as ash from Iceland’s latest volcanic eruption spread south to the continent. Airline traffic was halted in and [...]

Flights running, uncertainty remains

Many flights were taking off and landing in Norway on Tuesday, but the unpredictable clouds of ash from Iceland’s latest volcanic eruption left aviation officials unsure how long “ordinary” airline traffic could continue. “There are changes coming all the time,” Sindre Ånonsen of civil aviation authority Avinor told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) late Tuesday afternoon. Current [...]

Air space open, but with restrictions

UPDATED: Another round of airline disruption was descending on Norway and much of Europe after all on Tuesday, as unpredictable and unusually strong winds spread volcanic ash from Iceland. The ash was moving over both the southerly and most northerly parts of Norway. That forced suspension of fights to and from Svalbard, while Stavanger’s airport [...]

Uncertainty reigns as ash rains down

UPDATED: Civil aviation officials remained highly uncertain on Monday whether the weekend’s new volcanic eruptions in Iceland would seriously disrupt airline traffic in Norway and elsewhere in Europe. Flights to and from Svalbard faced delays Monday afternoon and air ambulance service was halted, while more volcanic ash was expected to reach Norwegian air space on [...]

NRK took a loss on Eurovision

Revenues from the Eurovision Song Contest ended up under budget, leaving Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) with a loss estimated at as much as NOK 5 million. Some of it is being blamed on Iceland’s volcano. NRK chief Hans-Tore Bjerkaas said that NRK’s costs came in about as expected, at around NOK 200 million (USD 32 million). [...]

New ash cloud halted flights up north

Norwegian aviation authorities closed air space in northern Norway from 2pm on Friday, because new clouds of ash were moving in from an Icelandic volcano. Airline Widerøe said it was forced to cancel around 20 flights. Norway’s Luftfartstilsynet put “restrictions” on air space over Andøya, Narvik, Bardufoss, Stokmarknes, Evenes and Tromsø.  Airports serving those areas were [...]

Air space open despite more volcanic disruption

Norwegian aviation authorities were keeping air space open on Monday, even though an ash cloud from Iceland’s volcano was moving in over southern Norway. Several flights were cancelled, though, because of volcanic disruption elsewhere in Europe. Around a thousand flights were delayed or cancelled in the UK and parts of Northern Europe on Monday. The [...]

Volcano may disrupt flights

Iceland’s volcano is acting up again, and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) had to cancel a flight from Oslo to Iceland’s Keflavik airport on Monday. Concerns rose that more volcanic ash may disrupt flights around Norway on Thursday. Aviation officials and meteorologists are hard-pressed to make any accurate predictions about what Iceland’s volcanic eruptions (PicApp photo) will actually [...]

Ash disrupts flights again up north

Clouds of ash from Iceland’s volcano rolled in over northern Norway again on Monday, prompting airline Widerøe to cancel several flights between Brønnøysund and Tromsø. The cancellations disrupted travel plans for passengers in Lofoten and Vesterålen. The ash cloud stayed out at sea on Sunday and during the night, but then it moved east and [...]

Airlines hope for less turbulence

Most of the airlines serving Norway said they expected relatively “normal” traffic over the weekend, but the definition of “normal” has taken on new meaning. More flights were cancelled Friday morning but air space was officially open. The fickle nature of Iceland’s volcanic activity, and the potentially dangerous clouds of ash and debris that it [...]

Uncertainty still plagues air traffic

The unpredictable clouds of ash drifting south from Iceland’s volcano can change course quickly and will likely disrupt air travel for the next several days, weeks or even months. Six airports were forced to close Thursday morning but later reopened. North Sea helicopter transport was suspended. Civil aviation agency Avinor announced that it had to [...]

Volcano creates new word

Not only have Norwegians been highly creative in coping with the recent shutdown of air travel, they’ve also coined a new word that a language expert says describes their situation perfectly. Norwegians have long used the word værfast when they’re stuck somewhere because of the weather. The word vær means weather, and fast (pronounced “fahst” and [...]

Flights running, disruption continues

Norway’s airports were expected to remain open past midnight on Wednesday, but many flights were cancelled and travel opportunities uncertain. Thousands of Norwegians are also still stranded around the world, and getting little help. Civil aviation authority Avinor reported Wednesday morning that air space and airports would remain open at least until 2pm and likely [...]

Groundings divert customs’ attention

When airports closed all over Norway in recent days, customs officials were able to beef up border patrols at the borders themselves. Customs inspectors normally assigned to airports have fanned out to main border crossings into Norway, not least those from Sweden into southern Norway.  On Sunday evening, passengers on board a packed train from [...]

Stoltenberg’s odyssey wins fame

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg seems to have won his proverbial 15 minutes of fame, after turning a harrowing journey home to Norway into an interesting experiment in political use of social media. As Views and News has reported earlier, Stoltenberg was among the millions stranded all over the world when Iceland’s volcano first started halting [...]

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