Transit times Oslo
 

Hi
What are the approx transit times for non shengen flights at OSL? Have a QR flight at 15:55 and am considering the SAS MAN-OSL flight 10:55-13:55 on a saturday. Would that give me enough time to clear passport/immigration collect my bags then check in for QR flight? Airport website says min transfer 45mins but I think that refers to same ticket transfers.Thanks

Probably not worth the chance unless OK with missing flight
 

SAS is very punctual. 2 hours at OSL is more than sufficient. I wouldn't hesitate to book this flight with a subsequent QR flight 2 hours later. Most likely the OP will make it.

I'm quite certain that the QR check-in is closing at 1 hour before departure. So, a 2 hour layover means that he only has one hour to reach the check-in desk. So, that's one hour for possible SAS delays, immigration, baggage reclaim, customs, and the walk from the gate to the check-in desks. On a Saturday, which is the busiest day of the week for leisure flyers. I would say that he has a more than 50% chance of making it.

? Saturday afternoon is probably the least busiest time of the week. You are referring to Friday and Sunday afternoon/evening.

I would rate the chance as high as 90-95%

I'll admit that my experience comes mostly from ARN and not OSL (I used to work at ARN), but at ARN at least, Saturday is by far the busiest day for leisure flyers. Saturday is the day when all those SAS 737s and 320s that usually fly ARN-OSL-ARN or ARN-CPH-ARN multiple times per day are instead used on such routes as ARN-PMI-ARN or ARN-CHQ-ARN.(1) Saturday is also the day for most cruise charters in the summer and skiing charters in the winter, and ethnic flights all year round. The baggage handlers have a lot of bags to take care of on a Saturday.

Friday and Sunday afternoon/evening is more commuters to OSL, CPH, HEL and similar destinations, who usually have less baggage, are more used to flying, and go through the airport much quicker.

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(1) A quick look at the OSL web site indeed shows lots of the same type of flights yesterday, Saturday. The ten first flights are: Palma, Samos, Malaga, Palma, Dublin, Antalya, Kalamata, Lisboa, Palma, Skiathos. Nine of these are baggage heavy destinations around the Mediterranean. On Sunday, today, the ten first flights are: Antalya, Copenhagen, Mytilini, Samos, Frankfurt, Karpathos, Paris, Alicante, Amsterdam, Athen.

Just take yesterday as an example: Around the time of the MAN flight were the following non-Schengen flights:

12:50 DY JFK
13:15 QR DOH
13:30 SK LHR
13:30 DY SPU
13:35 SK MAN
13:35 PC SAW
13:55 DY FLL

If the JFK flight would be half an hour late and FLL half an hour early, the MAN passengers could end up in an immigration line of 1,600-1,700 passengers.

Only big things to worry about here are delays in inbound flight (if you have a European passport). If you are on time this should work, if you are getting a delay you are soon to find your self in a stressful situation.

All over - Oslo is efficient - my record from leaving the airporttrain to being at a domestic gate is 2:30mins in the morning rush (Fasttrack and HBO that is). I am on average through OSL every second week both domestic and international at various days and times. Personally I would not have such a tight connection on separate tickets (unless it is my only option) as there are few alternatives if things go wrong. And I also guess 2 hrs are below what most travel insurances will cover?

Also - if you see "Boarding" on the monitors for QR, do not panic. They are normally putting that up way ahead of boardingtime so would probably show "Boarding" when your MAN-flight is landing.

Thanks for all your replies. I've decided to edge on the side of caution and will fly in on the Friday evening flight.

Any recommendations for budget hotels close to the airport, ideally walking distance?

The least busiest time is actually Tuesday to Thursday after 19:00. Saturday is about as busy as a weekday, but there is more leisure travelers than business travelers, while on the weekdays it's the opposite. Also the pax's are spread more equal during the day on a Saturday compared to a weekday, so you wont see the same peak hours on a Saturday, but more pax's in the middle of the day compared to a weekday.