#59 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
214 reviews
Welcome to the 5th part of this long Scandinavian series of reviews! On this sector, we'll be flying down to Oslo to spend two days and catch up with an old friend I hadn't seen in many years.
It was a wonderful few days in the Lofoten Islands of northern Norway–truly one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. Impressive mountains rising out of the sea, picturesque traditional fishing villages, and awe-inspiring hikes, were some of the highlights of this unique part of the world. My four-year-old summited his first mountain…ok, it was a small 500m (1500ft) tall mountain, but still, I was a proud papa. We missed the Northern Lights during our stay as it was cloudy every night, but we'll definitely be back to get another chance!
Reviews in this series:
For this domestic flight, we only arrived at the airport about an hour and a half before departure as we knew there wasn't much to do in this small airport. Definitely no Priority Pass lounges here haha.
We dropped off the rental car in the parking lot and walked in to the terminal from the small arrivals hall, closest to the car park.
The arrivals hall is adjacent to the check-in area to the right.
No SAS or other ground handling agents at all–just kiosks and automated bag-drop facilities. As cool and modern as that is, I can imagine it's frustrating for some older folks who may not be comfortable with technology, or if there's an issue with someone's ticket or reservation, or if the machines glitch–the possibilities of things going wrong without human supervision seem endless. I assume there was personnel somewhere in the airport to handle the aircraft, but it was a bit unsettling as it was my first time not seeing a single employee in a check-in zone.
Luckily everything went smoothly for us and we were on our way.
Security was just a few feet away and was a breeze with no one in the queue ahead.
It's a cute and pleasant little terminal with plenty of light from floor-to-ceiling windows.
There may not be a lounge, but there's a children's play area, which I always appreciate. Airports in Norway seem very kid-friendly.
As it's a small airport, we could see our A320neo pulling up just a few gates down. The inbound aircraft was running a few minutes late.
Deplaning was quick and boarding started soon thereafter. While there had been no agents at the ticket counters during check-in, there were plenty here to get the aircraft turned around quickly.
Passengers with seats behind the overwing exits, in rows 14-31, were asked to board through the rear door.
Outfitted with 180 seats, SAS A320neos are slightly less dense than the maximum allowed of 186, often found on LCCs. In this configuration, seats in front of the overwing exits–which are used for the SAS Plus premium economy cabin–have 30" (76cm) of seat pitch, while seats in the back have 29" (74cm) seat pitch.
While 29" seat pitch is tight, the design of these Recaro slimline seats, with seat-back pockets at eye-level, allows for more room around the knee, giving the impression of more space than with standard seat designs.
Each seat is equipped with a USB-A port in the seat-back.
Aside from the safety card, there is also a Wi-Fi guide, and a buy-on-board menu in the seat-back pocket.
The Wi-Fi guide even includes a satellite coverage map, which is kind of cool.
There's a decent variety of food and beverage options available to buy on board, with more elaborate fresh options available for pre-order. The prices are on the high-end, as one would expect in Scandinavia.
As you can imagine, there isn't much traffic at Harstad/Narvik Airport, at least outside of the peak summer season, so there was no wait to push back from the gate or take off once boarding was wrapped up.
The Wi-Fi was available once the aircraft was above 10,000 ft in altitude.
The Viasat satellite WiFi is generally fast and very reasonably priced.
Connecting is free SAS EuroBonus Diamond and Gold status holders, and only 39NOK (~ $3.75) for everyone else. That's a steal compared to Wi-Fi prices in the US that are easily double that, or more!
Coffee and tea are complimentary in Economy, everything else can be purchased from the buy-on-board selection. Totally fine on a 1.5 hour domestic flight.
Beautiful scenery outside once again, with gorgeous views of deep blue fjords and soaring snow-capped mountains.
It was decidedly cloudier as we began our descent into Oslo Gardermoen.
Without paying for the Wi-Fi, the SAS app and website are still accessible on board. You can check the status of flights while in the air.
Despite the delay on the inbound aircraft were due to land close to on time.
Descending over the northeastern suburbs of Oslo.
It was a quick taxi to the gate.
The aircraft arrived at the gate less than 10 minutes late.
Welcome to Oslo!
Very easy arrivals experience as there are no formalities for inbound domestic flights so you just go right to baggage claim. Checked bags were delivered quickly.
Another nice flight on an SAS A320neo. The cabin is nice and modern, cabin crew are pleasant, and service is adequate for a short domestic hop.
2 Comments
Straight out of Ikea^^
Pretty functional flight overall, reminds me of domestic flights in Japan with the decent in-flight experience and bare bones service. The USB ports and WiFi are definitely nice touches.
Do they even have taxi ways or do they use the runway and make u-turns at the end?
They certainly don’t pad their flight blocks like in the US to avoid delays.
LOL that was my same thought. It's literally the children's room display area at any IKEA ? So Scandinavian
Yes, they do have taxiways and the runway seems rather long, probably on account of it being a military air base as well.
Hah yeah they seemed to run a tight ship despite that. And US airlines still suck at on-time performance despite all the padding. My biggest pet peeve is landing 45 mins early because of padded time and then sitting on the tarmac for an hour because no gates are available and then being late...cuz that's the typicAAl AA experience.
Thanks for stopping by!
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