Flytoget AS

Updated: August 2026 – A train whose sole purpose is to move people with suitcases between city and airport looks different from a regional train – more so inside than out. Flytoget AS stands for exactly this segment in Norway, and the name says it already: fly means aeroplane, tog means train. This page explains why airport services are a category of their own and how to recognise them in the field.

What is Flytoget AS?

Flytoget AS is a Norwegian rail passenger company focused on airport services. The company name is an ordinary Norwegian word: fly for aeroplane, tog for train, with the ending -et corresponding to the definite article. So “Flytoget” simply means the aeroplane train – a functional name that directly names the segment.

The legal-form suffix AS is the Norwegian joint-stock company, roughly the equivalent of a GmbH. It is not the same as the Danish A/S with a slash, and not the same as the Swedish AB. The suffix reveals the country of registration – it says nothing about routes, fleet or owners, and all of that changes anyway.

So that gives you two solid facts from the name: the segment and the register. Everything else – which vehicles are in service, how the offering is marketed, how it relates to other services – belongs in the “subject to change” category and should never be treated as fixed in a sighting note.

Why airport services are their own segment

It would seem natural to treat an airport rail link as a special case of local transport. Operationally, though, it’s something distinct, because the passengers are different: they travel with luggage, in groups, often for the first time on this route – and almost always under time pressure. That fundamentally changes the requirements for the vehicle.

Requirement	Airport service	Classic regional service
Luggage	large travel luggage as the norm	little luggage, backpacks, bicycles
Interior	shelf space takes priority over seat count	maximum seat count takes priority
Passenger flow	fast boarding and alighting in waves	more even boarding across many stops
Orientation	many passengers unfamiliar with the area	mostly regular passengers
Vehicle look	uniform appearance across the whole train	more mixed vehicle fleets
Infrastructure	usually shared with other trains	shared with other trains

These differences aren’t fine points of interior design, but the reason airport services get dedicated vehicles. A train that has to take on a wagonload of suitcases can’t simultaneously be optimised for maximum seat count – the floor space only exists once. Conversely, such a vehicle would be poorly utilised in dense commuter traffic. That’s exactly why it’s worth looking through the windows as well as at the front when observing.

The last row of the table is the most important point for you in the field: dedicated vehicles don’t mean dedicated tracks. Airport services usually run over the same infrastructure as everything else, operated by an infrastructure company – in Norway that’s Bane NOR SF. Tracks, signals and overhead line are therefore the responsibility of Bane NOR, regardless of which company runs the train. That’s why at an airport station you’ll encounter several companies, for instance trains from Vy Tog AS or Go-Ahead Nordic AS alongside the airport service.

Classifying Norwegian vehicles

Norwegian rail vehicles carry an abbreviation for the type of traction plus a number: El for electric locomotives, Di for diesel locomotives, Type for railcars and multiple units. In vehicle lists – including this database – you’ll also often come across the prefix BM for the same family of multiple units. This system is explained in full on the page about CargoNet AS.

In the airport and local-transport environment, electric multiple units are the typical design. This is easy to compare across three vehicles: the BM71 procured for airport services, the classic local-transport multiple unit BM69, and the newer BM75. The latter two types come from the environment of the state railway Vy (formerly NSB), which has shaped Norwegian passenger transport for decades. Seen side by side, they show how differently vehicles for similar routes can turn out when the purpose differs. The guide Who’s actually running this? Identifying railway operators explains how to systematically narrow down unfamiliar vehicles.

Airport stations as a place to watch trains

Airport stations are a mixed bag for observers: busy and varied in terms of traffic, but usually built underground or under cover, with artificial light and little room to move. On top of that come special security rules and pronounced house rules.

The guide How to take good photos of trains provides the basics on composing shots in difficult light; the particular challenge here is mainly that you can barely choose your vantage point freely, so you focus on the train’s overall look and detail instead.

For documentation this means a small adjustment. At an airport station it’s worth also noting, for each sighting, which type of service you saw – airport link, regional or long-distance. That costs you one extra word, but later makes the difference between a list of vehicles and a picture of how the traffic there is composed.

If you’re staying for several hours, also keep track of the times carefully. Only from that does the really interesting analysis emerge: how the types of service are distributed across the day, and when different companies actually meet at one platform.

Common mix-ups

• Airport train mistaken for a regional train – the route is often the same, the purpose isn’t.
• Dedicated vehicle assumed to mean a dedicated network – airport link services share the infrastructure.
• AS confused with A/S or AB – Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are three different legal forms.
• Interior read as a comfort feature – the open floor space is luggage logistics, not a fit-out choice.
• Type and BM taken for two different systems – the same vehicle family, just different naming conventions.

Verdict

Flytoget AS stands for a transport segment defined less by the route than by the passenger. Once you start paying attention to how an airport train is built inside, you’ll recognise such services everywhere afterwards – and understand why very different vehicles can stop at the same platform.