E: Grounded in Oslo

I am supposed to be in my home town Brøstadbotn for Christmas preperations. Instead I just finished an extra day of work in Oslo. Fog and ice have caused chaos (see article from VG (in Norwegian)) at Oslo Airport Gardermoen, which have lead to numerous flight cancellations yesterday and today. Unfortunately for the airlines and us passengers, this Thursday and Friday are two of the busiest travelling days a year, with 70,000 people paying for airborne transportation.

My flight SK 0397 was scheduled to take off at 10:10 PM last night. I came ready and excited as early as 9, just to see a crowd of travellers and bags. My immediate thought was that «this will take a while», but felt slightly more concerned when revealing that all self-check in counters were closed and the lines were at standstill as there were no staff admitting luggage or tickets. Instead of information, there were journalists and cameras. Many newcomers, including myself, made a few phone calls to try to figure out what went on. After a bit the loudspeakers advised all passengers to check on the screens for updates. Many were delayed, a few cancelled, but so far nothing regarding my flight. A chapter of reading later (Stephen Baldwin – The Unusual Suspect), the next message declared that all flights with the airline SAS were negated.

I did not care to be frustrated – the airlines cannot change the weather – and headed back on the express train. And I could not help smiling at the irony of the train hostess making the mistake of saying «have a nice flight» before correcting herself to «have a pleasant stay» as we arrived back at Oslo central.

I booked a new flight for Sunday at 6:20 pm, but still await possible changes in flights and times, in case it is possible to head home earlier. Time will tell. I just got through to some information centre, telling me to show up at the airport tonight and hope that I will get on some flight. I highly doubt I care to wait for hours and hours for something maybe, but will rather be in touch if a larger flight is put into traffic.

I feel all right about the situation, although I would very much like to be home with my family. As long as I get there before Monday, I will be all right.

UPDATE 8:20 PM (Friday)
I will fly out tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:35 PM if the weather allows. An extra plane will be taking off, as long as the fog does not reappear around that time. The forecast is not the best, but I am optimistic. Yeah!


PICTURE TAKEN FROM VG