Today is a great day for Scandinavian aviation as the two mainstays of Norwegian aviation, low-cost carrier Norwegian and regional airline Widerøe, reached an agreement for future cooperation. The agreement will help the two companies to thrive and connect the nation to other countries at more advantageous prices.
The two operators
For a brief introduction, Norwegian is the leading low-cost carrier in Norway, operating from several hubs in Europe and with a fleet of 737 (both NG and MAX). In Northern Europe, it’s the main competitor of SAS, Wizz Air, and Ryanair. It used to have a strong tradition of long-haul operations, using 787s, but they ceased after the COVID pandemic.
Widerøe is the main regional carrier for Norway and has almost no competitors, except on some routes, where it has fierce competition with SAS. It operates a fleet of DeHavilland Dash 8s and 3 E190-E2. The route network of Widerøe is more than 90% domestic, with very few selected international routes operated by the Embraer fleet.
The agreement
On July 12th 2022, Norwegian announced via a press release that an agreement has been reached between the airline and the new partner, Widerøe. Some details are still being worked on, Widerøe’s CEO Stein Nielsen says: “we still have a way to go before the agreement is final, but we work well together and have a common goal that this should be implemented as quickly as possible.” But there is no doubt that this interline agreement is extremely important for all the travellers that move through, to, and from Norway, meaning more connectivity and lower ticket prices, making the combo Norwegian-Widerøe hard to beat for the other 2 aforementioned competitors, Wizz Air and SAS, in western Scandinavia.
Travel Radar will be more than happy to provide further details on this story, once new details emerge.
