Jasper Spruit (39) has been appointed as Avinor’s new Director of Traffic Development.
Spruit will have comprehensive responsibility for Avinor’s national and international focus for route development.
Spruit is currently Director of Aviation Marketing at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and will take up his new position in June.
“Spruit has been appointed to help Avinor realise its ambition of developing one of Europe’s best national and international route portfolios, as well as positioning Oslo Airport as a preferred airport for intercontinental air traffic in the Nordic countries,” says Øyvind Hasaas, Managing Director of Oslo Airport.
Spruit has been at Schiphol since 2006, only interrupted by a stint as Director of Asian Development at Brisbane Airport Corporation in Australia. He has worked in aviation throughout his career and has now been assigned the job of leading Avinor’s and Oslo Airport’s focus on traffic development in general, and intercontinental routes in particular.
“It’s a very exciting job in an exciting market. Competition in the Nordic countries is tough and it’s important that Oslo and Norway position themselves vis-à-vis the most important markets in the world. We view Asia and North America as natural areas on which to concentrate even more,” says Spruit.
Working to achieve the most attractive routes
Oslo Airport is currently in the middle of a major expansion, and when the new part of the airport opens in 2017 it will be able to handle up to 30 million travellers annually.
Norwegians travel a lot and greater distances than before, and in 2014, 50 million passengers travelled to and from Norwegian airports.
“We have received signals from several airlines that they are planning a major route expansion in intercontinental traffic and it is then up to us to position ourselves so that the most attractive routes go via Norway,” Spruit believes.
The new Director of Traffic Development will be assigned overall responsibility for commercial traffic, which also includes domestic, international and charter flights. In 2014, Oslo Airport was served by 37 scheduled service airlines, 146 routes and 28 charter operators. In addition, 11 purely cargo airlines operate out of the airport.