Winter tourism drives 25% growth in international traffic at Tromsø airport
Passenger traffic at Tromsø Airport reached 626,600 in January and February, with international routes recording the strongest growth.
Tourists are flocking to Tromsø, the largest city in the Norwegian Arctic. Popular attractions include whale watching, chasing the Northern Lights, and — despite prices often higher than in many European capitals — staying in the city’s hotels.
The recently expanded terminal building at Tromsø Airport is already proving too small. Passengers have faced long queues at check-in, security, and passport control for travellers departing the Schengen area.
Discussions are therefore already underway on how to further expand the airport’s capacity.
In January and February, 281,600 passengers travelled on international routes to and from Tromsø, a 25% increase compared with the same period last year. Domestic routes to other airports in Norway accounted for 345,016 passengers, up 8%, according to statistics from Avinor, the company that operates Norway’s state-owned airports.
As a result, Tromsø is now the third-busiest airport in Norway, after Oslo and Bergen.
The total number of passengers in 2025 reached almost 2.4 million. Growth was driven primarily by international traffic, which increased by 40% compared with 2024.
This winter, the airport is served by 17 airlines, connecting Tromsø with 23 European cities: Dublin, Manchester, Bristol, London (three airports), Paris (two airports), Barcelona, Geneva, Milan, Zurich, Stuttgart, Munich, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Vienna, Hannover, Hamburg, Berlin, Gdańsk, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Rovaniemi.
Planning for next winter is already well underway. A new route has been announced, with Icelandair launching a direct service from Reykjavik. Afternoon departures from Tromsø will allow convenient same-day onward connections to the United States.
Tromsø is now the busiest airport in the circumpolar north, followed by Fairbanks, Alaska (almost 1,2 million) and Rovaniemi in Finland.
Rovaniemi surpassed one million annual passengers for the first time in 2025, serving 1.1 million travellers — an increase of 18.4%, according to Finavia.
