Moss airport Rygge officially marks my first entry point to Norway in Summer 2016. Unfortunately, or for good, Rygge airport has been shut down to all civilian traffic on November 1, 2016.
We arrived here from Malaga by Ryanair cheap flight and stayed overnight in Oslo, to return back and have a flight to Riga next morning.
Moss Airport, Rygge was an international airport serving Moss, Oslo and Eastern Norway. It is located in Rygge, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) outside Moss and 60 kilometres (37 mi) outside Oslo. It also served as a regional airport for Østfold county and owned and was operated by the private company Rygge Sivile Lufthavn AS.
Moss/Rygge shut down to all civilian traffic on 1 November 2016. The airport is however co-located with the still operational Rygge Air Station, operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force, who also own the land and runway. The control tower services (air traffic control) are operated by Avinor.
Coach departing Rygge airport to Oslo city center
That coach definitely was the most expensive I have tried - round trip ticket from Rygge airport to Oslo city center and back for two persons cost me about EUR 140. What's the fun of using cheap flight by Ryainair to pay triple price for the coach? I'm not the guy who will miss this airport, on the other hand seems Norwegians enjoy of being one of the most expensive countries in the world. Good for them. For a budget traveler, not the best destination - hey fly to Georgia instead. From the remote Kutaisi airport you will get to Tbilisi center for less than 10 USD and the distance is about 200km.
The airport opened on 8 October 2007, but did not officially open until 14 February 2008, when regular scheduled services started. The airport has a capacity for 2 million passengers per year, but could not reach this because of a concession limit of 21,000 annual air movements. The airport handled 1,890,889 passengers in 2013. The airport used to be a major base for Ryanair from March 2010 until October 2016 and was also served to a much lesser extend by Norwegian Air Shuttle and few charter operators. The airport has been closed for all civilian traffic by 1 November 2016 due to a proposal from its main commercial operator, Ryanair, to shut down its base at the airport on that date after a new Norwegian passenger tax was introduced.
