There were few hitches as the first planes took off from the new terminal, almost 50 km (32 miles) north of the capital.

Smoke from a cable on one of the new trains serving Gardermoen airport and some flight delays were among minor problems on the opening day.

The airport, officially opened on Wednesday evening by King Harald cost 20 billion crowns ($2.7 billion) and can handle 17 million passengers a year, double that of the 59-year-old Fornebu airport.

Fornebu, 10 km (six miles) from Oslo, closed on Wednesday.

In spite of a smoke alert aboard an empty train, the new rail link ran smoothly. ``A cable became slightly warm. It was disconnected,'' spokesman Ove Narvesen said.

The first flight, a Color Air plane to Aalesund in northwest Norway, took off at 6:50 am (0450 GMT).

A Scandinavian Airline System jetbound for Stockholm,due to be the first departure, was delayed by 20 minutes and was the second flight out.

"The airport has been working very well this morning and we have a lot of satisfied customers which we are very pleased with,'' said airport director Bjorn Sund.

Sund said Gardermoen expected 30 flights an hour on Thursday, or between 300 and 400 in total.

The number was down from an expected 450-500 because pilots from Braathens, a mainly domestic airline, were on strike, demanding compensation for the longer commuting time to Gardermoen.

Sund said the gigantic removal using 500 trucks, some carrying entire escalators and including ungainly convoys of catering vans and plane-towing vehicles, arrived ahead of schedule overnight.

Everything was in place 30 minutes ahead of schedule with no serious setbacks, he added.