Innlegg på Avinor-konferansen

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!

Thank you for inviting me here today!

Air transport is one of my key areas of interest. That is not least because air transport is of major importance to Norway. Avinor is both the owner of our airports and responsible for Air Traffic Management. In many ways Avinor is the hub of Norwegian aviation. The ownership in Avinor is therefore an important political tool for me as Minister of Transport and Communications.

The importance of Norwegian aviation
The reason why the aviation industry is so vital to Norway is our geographical location. Norway has a widespread population, long distances between population centres, a tough operating climate and difficult topography.
For all these reasons air transport is a more vital factor for Norway than for most other European countries. Norwegians fly more domestic air miles than the vast majority of other Europeans. We have more airports per capita than any other European country. In many areas aviation has the character of a local public transport system. Norway also tops the European statistics for the transport of goods and mail by air.

The regional airports and route network play a key role in ensuring competitive industrial and commercial activity in the regions.  Punctual and regular air services contribute to improved competitiveness in trade and industry. In that way aviation also contributes to workplaces in the regions, and it offers the opportunity for long distance commuting – something I have personally experienced for many years.

We have emphasised all these factors in our new governmental policy plan, Soria Moria II. The government emphasises in the Statement that the cross-subsidy arrangement will continue. Cross-subsidising means that the most profitable airports contribute to the operation of the commercialy unprofitable. This is an important premise for Avinor’s operations.

It is important for the government to ensure conditions that make it possible for the majority of domestic routes to continue to operate without government grants. We will nonetheless continue the arrangement of subsidising commercial unprofitable routes. We do this by imposing Public Service Obligations (PSOs). The goal is to ensure good and necessary scheduled flights to all corners of the nation.

We will also ensure that the development of airports outside the Avinor system does not adversely affect the decentralised airports nationwide.

The role of Avinor
There are many positive trends in current developments in Avinor. So far in 2009 we have seen a very pleasing result with regard to punctuality. Avinor is now top of the European league in this respect. As of August 2009, eighty-nine percent of all scheduled flights were on time.

Further, ninety-nine percent of all planned departures were implemented. This is an excellent achievement! I also applaud Avinor’s objective that ninety percent of all air passengers shall be processed through security checks within five minutes.

Our aim is that the level of safety in Norwegian aviation shall be amongst the highest in the world. Eurocontrol, The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, stated in the autumn of this year that Avinor’s safety culture leads the way in Europe. I was very pleased to see that! Avinor is furthermore engaged in a major safety improvement programme for the airports. This is to fulfil new requirements from our CAA. The program will ensure that the safety level at our airports can remain at the top level in Europe. That is also an important part of the work related to safety.

Developments in passenger figures are better than prognosticated. Oslo Airport Gardermoen was Scandinavia’s busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic during the first six months of the year. An excellent result!

I am pleased to see that Avinor has taken a leading initiative in the work to reduce climate gas emissions from civil aviation. It is also important for me that Avinor prioritises the work of adapting the air traffic system to ensure access for all, including passengers with reduced mobility.

The financial crisis we have seen during the past years has had a major impact. Aviation has been hit harder than many other businesses. The government has introduced measures for Avinor in the state budget for 2009. We have also proposed additional measures for the budget in 2010. In a hearing we have proposed only a moderate increase in fees and charges next year. This is in order to meet the wishes and address the concerns of the airlines.

The unrest that remains in the world of finance continues to place great demands on good governance. We will continue to monitor the situation closely. The most important factor for us is to maintain a system that makes it possible for the passengers to travel to the highest possible degree seamlessly from A to B.

I started by saying that aviation is vital to the nation. If Norway is to function, aircraft must continue to fly and safety must remain paramount. Avinor has done and continues to do an extremely important job in this area.

Thank you all for your kind attention – I wish you all a successful and fruitful conference!