Oslo Airport

The architects failed at a key functional requirement - seating at the gates. There are about 28 seats at each gate, there is a massive open corridor (approximately 30' wide), so people are just standing around turning in circles trying to figure out what they are going to do without a seat for an hour or more. Also there are no USB charging stations so no "universal" charging stations - you have to have your large bulky converter on you in order to charge if your not a local. I think they are going to regret their choice in floor finishes - they alrwady look dated and dirty in many areas - the light wood and the dark black tile.

Passport control for departure is a nightmare. Catching this plane could be a near thing and I joined the queue one hour before my flights departure time. Just made it and could not see what the cursury glance at my passports was worth that stupidly long line for! And why not put on extra staff if that passport glance is so vital. There is almost nothing worse when travelling then long queues where both those people in the queue and those supposedly marshalling it have no idea what is happening and react panickingly to rumours. Will avoid using this airport in future. Has spoilt my whole view of Norway.

I only happened on this mess of an airport due to a connection on Norwegian. Somehow I had it in my mind based on UK, French, Spanish even Greek airports that European airports were more organized and comfy than American airports. What a disappointment. The signage is atrocious; we nearly exited the airport after a half hour walk through the terminal when we should have been making a simple connection. The long lines for food and lack of seating and cramped dirty spaces was like something out of the dark ages. I have zero interest in making another connection in Oslo.

OSL must be the worst airport in Europe. It's overcrowded, almost nowhere to sit and wait. If you find a seat to grab a bite, you get a shock when you see the prices. When transiting Intl to Domestic, you have to collect the baggage and get thru customs and check in the baggage again. After that a long long wait for a security check done by unfriendly staff. The signage is poor. Not enough toilets. I have my doubts that things will get better after the construction of the new pier is completed. A really badly managed airport.

Oslo is the worst managed airport I've ever seen. Asked t rate the terminal seating and terminal cleanliness but who has the time to spend time at terminal? Everyone's always in hurry because no departing passenger would ever have time for waiting here. According to general international departure perceptions, one should be at airport at least 3 hours before the departure time. We arrived about 3.5 hours before. First of all long queues for check-in. We were taking an Emirates flight to Dubai. Reached Emirates counter and it took about 20-25 minutes for us to check in. For security, no signage present, we had to ask the airport official. We proceeded towards the security check, out of about 7-8 counters, only 2 were working with long long queues. It took us about 30 minutes. Security check was smooth, no complaints. Then came a smelly, cramped shopping area. We found our gate and before that was hell waiting for us - passport control. It took us around 2 hours in a queue to clear with Emirates staff helping us. The process is that there are only 2-3 passport control counters, always flooded with passengers. If you have a flight on SAS, at the gate is closing, SAS staff would come and get all the passengers through passport control. So those who are waiting for their turns in queue remain at their same position even after hours. In short when the flight crew comes, the passengers clear passport control and boards their flights. We to were taken by Emirates officials and jumped the line and got through the passport control. We reached the gate 10 mins after the actual time the gate was meant to close. Not only us but about 50-60 passengers were with us. We didn't have time to spend at gates and hence boarded the plane as soon as we cleared through passport control. In short, the worst management I've ever seen on an International airport and too busy for a capital city.

Absolutely chaotic airport. I have 45 years of airport experience as a traveller. After landing the SAS plane was directed to a gate that was not vacated. Had to turn around, taxi around the international section to another gate. According to internet info a new customs and security system for transit to domestic flights was supposed to be in force, but it was not. You have to completely leave customs area with your baggage and find the domestic departure hall to drop your baggage at a bag drop counter, and then go (naturally) through security again. The baggage claim area was way too small for the volume of traffic. While waiting at our assigned carousel the assigment of our flight was changed to another one, and the whole bunch of passengers had to go to the other end of the hall. About four flights full of baggage was being delivered at this new carousel, ours being the last one in a row. The red-tagged priority baggage did not arrive first. The waiting time was ca. 45 minutes. No staff to help people who were losing their domestic connection. Luckily we travelled SAS plus, so we had a fast lane for the new security check. The domestic business lounge was tiny with mostly barstool-type seating and not much for food. Departure international: A much better lounge there, but the gate area is designed for only half of the passenger volume it handles. We were called way too early, only to find out that the late-arrived plane had not been cleaned yet. The staff did not make any announcement about the coming late departure or the reason. Many people had to sit on the floor. When the gate was opened we discovered that we could only walk down the gangway half-way, and then had to stand for a long time to wait for the cleaning crew to vacate the plane. Then they let us wait in the second half of the gangway because the plane was not ready. No coordination between the handling agent and the flight crew. Boarding took a full 25 minutes and extended our delay. Advice: Plan three or more hours to change to a domestic flight, and do not fly economy.

✅ Verified Review | Unbelievable long lines and chaos at Passport Control when leaving Oslo for LAX. Security line was a breeze, and I thought I was done. But wanted to make sure I could find my F-gate because signs only showed E's. I asked and someone told me to go through all the E's, and eventually I did come to the entry point for the F gates. That's where the huge lines were. There were 3 or 4 lines-never clear because people kept shifting every time they saw an opportunity for a shorter line. Eventually it became clear that airport staff were calling out large groups of people at once (probably because their flights were closing, it wasn't enough that they were just boarding), which caused an occasional line to move really fast while the others stood almost still. Everyone was confused-not at all clear what was happening. When I finally got to Passport Control after waiting 35 minutes in a line which luckily for me turned out to move relatively fast, I asked the lady manning the booth why it took so long to exit the country, she told me because I was leaving the EU and said without a trace of a smile that I shouldn't ask that kind of question. Never mind that I've left EU countries at least twice in the last two years and don't remember even being stopped before leaving. To top it off, we had to stand and wait outside the entrance to our gate (F18) for another 20 minutes before the gate was opened. There were no places to buy food once into the F area. I'm only giving this airport a "1" rating because there was a decent place to get coffee and pastry with the friend who drove me there in plenty of time for the flight. Otherwise, it would be a 0.

✅ Verified Review | I will for sure stay clear of Oslo Airport in future. When departing to another country you first enter a far too long and far too smelly duty free. When you finally emerge from there without being attacked by one of the sales people you come into a very long and not that wide hallway where all the gates are placed. The gate areas themselves are just too small so people fill up into the hallway so it is downright impossible to pass by. Seating is also something that has not been invented in Gardermoen so the only place you can sit down if you are going to have something to eat or drink. If you would like something to eat and drink then beware. You need to stand in queue for what is close to 1 hour before you even get to a place where you can order your food. And then there is the price level. 111 NOK for a beer. It is expensive. So my recommendations are either to try and spend as little in this airport as possible or arrive up to 5 hours before your flight to be able to get something to eat and drink and a place to sit down. The staff also at security are not at all polite. You address them in English and they answer back in Norwegian.

✅ Verified Review | Where do I begin. From deplane to take off of connecting flight Oslo airport is terrible and I was only there an hour. Norwegian from Dublin to Oslo and on to Orlando. Stairs to deplane, bus to terminal, stairs and broken escalator to carry luggage up 2 floors. Passport Control not friendly, security re-screen for connecting flight, then Immigration again to get on the second flight. The lines were insane, employees not helpful or friendly and flight 30 minutes late boarding and departing due to slow immigration queues. Don't understand why someone has to be reprocessed for a connecting flight. Then, upon landing in Orlando the ground crew at Oslo failed to load the Dublin transfer luggage to the final flight. Just terrible all the way around. Tampa International is my home airport and should be the standard for all.

The worst airport I have ever been to. I will echo what many before me have said. It is too small, unorganised, full of unhelpful, unfriendly and uncommunicative staff. The departure gates are too small which results in overcrowding of the areas and throughout the airport there are not nearly enough seats to accomodate all passengers. The airport is badly signposted and organised. There are 'helpers' around the airport dressed in purple with the 'i' symbol on their uniform but all the ones I saw were very unhelpful. Particularly in Gate F the international gates where I ended up in the queue for the wrong passport lane due to the uninterested helper simply pointing when asked where I should go. Another helper who was in the queues for All passport/EU passports was even on his phone at one point, totally ignoring everyone. Passport control itself is far too slow with the queue I was in taking on average five minutes for every one person which meant if you queued up an hour before your flight thinking you would have enough time, you may actually miss it. This was due to the overzealous officer on the window in my lane, who started an arguement with a passenger. Once finally through passport control, I made my way down to the gate for my flight. I am sat there for about 10 minutes when I look up and see the screen now reads a completely different destination, and not the one I am headed for. Panicking, I check the board to see that they have moved the gate. Didn't bother to announce it though. After getting lost looking for the gates on the bottom floor (again due to terrible signposting) I finally found it and stood for 35 minutes until my flight boarded. About 10 minutes after I arrived, a group of passengers rushed downstairs; they also must have just realised that their gate was changed with no announcement. There must have been nearly 100 people maybe more in the gate for this flight and about 20 seats to sit on. Another gate right next to mine was also full which resulted in a tight packed swarm of people in a small space with no room to move about. Eventually, I boarded the plane and left, landing at the far superior Heathrow. I feel sorry for all the people who have to use Oslo Airport regularly, luckily for me it was only a few times. 0/10. Avoid this airport.