Several hundred airline passengers had to spend the night at Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen (OSL) and were still waiting in the departure terminal on Thursday. Stormy and dangerous weather has disrupted traffic all over Norway, mostly along the coast and in Northern Norway but also at the country’s gateway airport in Oslo.
“We’re very frustrated,” passenger Olav Asbjørn Karlsen told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Thursday after trying to sleep on the airport’s floor and various chairs. He and his wife were told that all the hotels near the airport were full Wednesday night, also in Oslo.
“We’re also rather angry,” said Karlsen, complaining that airline SAS was not doing a good job of keeping passengers informed after snow and rain that froze on the runways made them too slick for takeoffs and landings. “We should have been in Haugesund at 3pm yesterday (to visit a daughter). Where’s the information for us travelers? It has snowed here at Gardermoen before.”
Weather-related problems at other airports around Norway also created traffic disruptions that continued on Thursday. Airline and airport personnel claimed they were scrambling to deal with all the trouble and frustrated passengers.
“This winter weather has caused problems for all the airlines,” said SAS spokesperson Tonje Sund. “Several hundred of our passengers had to spend the night either at hotels or even here at OSL. It’s been very demanding.” She said SAS boosted staffing and got help from colleagues in Copenhagen and Stokholm to deal with the problems in Norway. “We’re hoping to get everyone on their way today,” she told NRK Thursday morning.
newsinenglish.no staff
