Avinor AS is a state-owned

limited company In a limited company, the Legal liability, liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a c ...

that operates most of the civil airports in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The Norwegian state, via the

Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Transport, also referred as Ministry of Transport and Communications (, SD) is a Norwegian ministry established in 1946, and is responsible for transportation in Norway. The ministry was responsible for communica ...

, controls 100 percent of the

share capital A corporation's share capital, commonly referred to as capital stock in the United States, is the portion of a corporation's equity that has been derived by the issue of shares in the corporation to a shareholder, usually for cash. ''Share ...

. Avinor was created on 1 January 2003, by the

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

of the Norwegian Civil Aviation Administration known as ''Luftfartsverket''. Its head office is in

Bjørvika Bjørvika is a neighborhood in the Sentrum borough of Oslo, Norway. The area is an inlet in the inner Oslofjord, situated between Gamlebyen and Akershus Fortress. It serves as an outlet for the river Akerselva. Since the 2000s, it has been ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, located on the seaside of

Oslo Central Station Oslo Central Station (, abbreviated ) is the main railway station in Oslo, and the largest railway station within the entire Norwegian railway system. It connects with Jernbanetorget station, which is served by trams and the Oslo Metro. It's ...

. Avinor owns and operates 44

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

s in Norway, fourteen in association with the

Royal Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) () is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximately 2,430 employees (officers, enlisted ...

, and is responsible for

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

services in Norway. In addition to the 44 airports, it operates three

Area Control Center In air traffic control, an area control center (ACC), also known as a center or en-route center, is a facility responsible for controlling aircraft flying in the airspace of a given flight information region (FIR) at high altitudes between ...

Bodø Air Traffic Control Center Bodø Air Traffic Control Center or Bodø ATCC en route air traffic control unit located at Bodø Airport in the town of Bodø in Bodø Municipality, in North Norway. The ATCC has a total of 36 airports under its area of responsibility (AoR) - 13 ...

Stavanger Air Traffic Control Center Stavanger Air Traffic Control Center or Stavanger ATCC () is responsible for the controlled airspace above Western Norway. The area control center is located at Stavanger Airport, Sola. The Control Center is owned and operated by the state enterpr ...

and

Oslo ATCC Oslo Air Traffic Control Center or Oslo ATCC () is responsible for the controlled airspace above Eastern Norway. The area control center is located in Røyken, between Oslo and Drammen. The Control Center is owned and operated by Avinor Flysikring, ...

. , the chief executive officer was

Sverre Quale Sverre Quale (born 21 July 1956 in Mo i Rana, Helgeland) is a Norway, Norwegian civil servant and businessperson. He grew up in Mo i Rana and currently lives in Billingstad. He is a sivilingeniør, siv. ing. by education, graduating from the Nor ...

who has been in the job since 18 April 2006. He was previously the head of the

Norwegian Accident Investigation Board The Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority (NSIA; , SHK) is the government agency responsible for investigating transport-related accidents within Norway. Specifically, it investigates aviation accidents and incidents, rail accidents, mariti ...

. As of 2011, Sverre Quale has been employed as the CEO at Multiconsult. His replacement, Dag Falk-Petersen, was CEO of

CHC Helicopters CHC Helicopter is a Texas-based helicopter services company. CHC Helicopter maintains its global headquarters in Irving, Texas and operates more than 250 aircraft in 30 countries around the world. CHC's major international operating units are ...

. In February 2021,

Abraham Foss Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the covenantal relationship between the Jewish people and God; ...

took on the role of CEO of the company. Avinor has about 3000 employees, including air traffic control, air navigation services, rescue, maintenance, administration and other airport operations personnel.

History

On 1 July 1947, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communication created the Aviation Directorate (''Luftfartsdirektoratet'') to take over the responsibility for the civilian airports in Norway. Until then the

Norwegian Ministry of Defence The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence () is a Norwegian government ministry in charge of the formation and implementation of national security and defence policy, and for the overall management and control of the activities of subordinate age ...

was responsible for operating airports, including the civilian ones. This responsibility had been delegated to the Aviation Council (''Luftfartsrådet'') within the ministry. The first director was

Einar Bøe Einar is a Scandinavian given name deriving from the Old Norse name Einarr, which according to Guðbrandur Vigfússon is directly connected with the concept of the einherjar, warriors who died in battle and ascended to Valhalla in Norse mythology ...

(1947–1964), followed by

Erik Willoch Erik Willoch (19 December 1922 – 5 August 1991) was a Norwegian jurist and civil servant. Born in Oslo as a brother of Kåre Willoch, he graduated as cand.jur. in 1948. He worked at the University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a p ...

(1964–1989),

Ove Liavaag Ove Liavaag (29 May 1938 - 19 December 2007) was a Norwegian civil servant. He was the director of the Norwegian Civil Aviation Administration from 1989 to 2000. Prior to this he was technical director of the same organization from 1981. He was a ...

(1989–2000),

Randi Flesland Randi Runa Svenkerud Flesland (born 17 November 1955 in Oslo) is a Norwegian civil servant. Flesland was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, with education in economics, with addition of psychology and pedagogy in the universities of Oslo and ...

(2000–2005),

(2006–2010), Dag Falk-Petersen (2011–2021) and

(2021–). The organisation changed its name to Luftfartsverket in 1967. In 1997,

Oslo Airport, Fornebu Oslo Airport, Fornebu was the primary international airport serving Oslo and Eastern Norway from 1 June 1939 to 7 October 1998. It was then replaced by Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, and the area has since been redeveloped. The airport was located at ...

and the then under construction

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen Oslo Airport () , alternatively referred to as Oslo Gardermoen Airport or simply Gardermoen, is an international airport serving Oslo, the capital and most populous city of Norway. The airport is the second largest in Scandinavia and the Nord ...

, were merged into a separate subsidiary, Oslo Lufthavn AS. This company still operates Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. On 14 December 2005, CEO Randi Flesland resigned after an ongoing dispute with employees. She was temporarily replaced by Nic. Nilsen until Sverre Quale took over.

Awards

* Palladium Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy™ (class of 2016)

References

External links

*
About Avinor
* {{authority control Airport operators Government-owned companies of Norway Air navigation service providers Ministry of Transport (Norway)