Oslo's main airport at Gardermoen was closed on Monday morning after rain which froze on the runways overnight made it impossible for planes to land and take off.

Some 30,000 passengers were kept waiting several hours at the airport because their flights were delayed or cancelled.

The airport reopened at 10 a.m. (0090 GMT) with a restricted capacity, giving much relief to passengers, although they still had to wait at least a few hours more.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the airport began to operate almost at its full capacity, dealing with 20 flights an hour.

Monday's disruption was the first of this scale the Gardermoen airport experienced in this winter.

According to Norwegian media reports, all the three laureates for this year's Nobel peace prize -- Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, her compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Yemen's women's rights activist Tawakkul Karman, were also unable to board on time as their flights were likewise affected by the bad weather.

The Liberian president was escorted to the Rygge airport, 60 kilometers southeast of Oslo. From there she took another flight for home.

Meanwhile, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman had to wait at the Gardermoen airport as other passengers.

The three were in Oslo to collect the 2011 Nobel peace prize.

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