Norwegian Air Shuttle and Widerøe announced the signing of a letter of intent (LOI) outlining an agreement between the two companies to collaborate in a number of areas in the near future. Primarily, the two Norwegian airlines will cooperate in the booking and ticketing process.
In this way, passengers will be able to make connections and board flights marketed and operated by both companies interchangeably, thanks to an interline agreement. This type of commercial service allows the sale of segments by one airline for flights operated by another. The company issuing the ticket maintains its own reservation code and identifies the operator of the flight.
The partnership will optimize customer service and air connectivity in Norway. This is an important market for both companies: Norwegian is one of the leading operators in the country and Scandinavia, while Widerøe offers regional connections throughout Norway. Thus, the establishment of the agreement will add options for travelers.
In addition, such an agreement is highly beneficial due to Norway’s specific characteristics. In a country with a large territory and sparsely populated regions, air connectivity is one of the tools to improve integration.
«Our goal for this collaboration is to benefit both companies’ passengers and our employees», said Geir Karlsen, CEO of Norwegian. «In many ways, this is an historic agreement bringing two Norwegian airlines together», he added. Although no further details of the initiative are known, he said that talks held in recent months show that the two companies have «a common interest in collaborating» in many areas.
For his parte, Stein Nilsen, CEO of Widerøe, said the agreement «will allow customers of Norwegian and Widerøe to combine their flights with both airlines at home and abroad».
In that regard, he stressed the importance of expanding connectivity between own routes, especially on the coast and northern Norway, and Norwegian’s European route network. «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», he concluded.
Widerøe is currently Scandinavia’s largest regional airline. It operates at 42 airports in Norway and operates a fleet consisting of Embraer E190 E2 and De Havilland Canada Dash 8 aircraft.
Norwegian, on the other hand, operates out of fourteen Norwegian air terminals. Its fleet consists of 67 Boeing 737-800s. At the end of June, it confirmed an agreement to acquire 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft between 2025 and 2028.
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