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Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA

IATA DY ICAO NAX Callsign NOR SHUTTLE
Founded	1993
Hubs	Oslo Airport, Gardermoen Bergen Airport, Flesland Stavanger Airport, Sola Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport Trondheim Airport, Værnes Stockholm-Arlanda Airport Moss Airport, Rygge Copenhagen Airport
Frequent flyer program	Norwegian Reward
Fleet size	45 (+53 firm orders)
Destinations	84
Headquarters	Fornebu, Norway
Key people	Bjørn Kjos (CEO) Erik G. Braathen (Chair)
Website	http://www.norwegian.com

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (OSE: NAS, IATA Code: DY), trading as Norwegian, is the second-largest airline in Scandinavia. In 2008, it transported 9.1 million people on 150 routes to 82 destinations, covering across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East. As of November 2009, Norwegian operates 46 Boeing 737aircraft.

The main hub is Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, but Norwegian also has Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, Moss, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Warsaw as focus cities. It offers a high-frequency domestic operation within Scandinavia, combined with a low-frequency service to international destinations from its focus cities.

Norwegian was founded in 1993 as a regional airline taking over routes in Western Norway after the bankruptcy of Busy Bee. Until 2002, it operated Fokker 50 aircraft on wet lease for Braathens. Following the merger of the two domestic incumbents Braathens and Scandinavian Airlines, Norwegian took the opportunity to establish a domestic low-cost carrier. It has since expanded quickly, establishing itself in Warsaw and purchasing Swedish airline FlyNordic in 2007, and entering the Copenhagen market in 2008. The same year it delivery of its first brand new Boeing 737-800. The airline is now considering to buy 4 Airbus A330 or Boeing 767 aircrafts for long-haul operations.

History

The routes opeated on behalf of Braathens in Western Norway during the 1990s

Regional airline

Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) was founded on 22 January 1993 to take over the regional airline services produced by Busy Bee for Braathens in Western Norway. Busy Bee, founded in 1966, was a subsidiary of Braathens that operated a fleet of Fokker 50 aircraft for charter. This included the network of regional services between cities on the West Coast operated on wet lease for the mother company. Following the bankruptcy, NAS took over three leased Fokker 50 aircraft, and started operating from Bergen Airport, Flesland to Haugesund Airport, Karmøy, as well as from Bergen to Molde Airport, Årø or Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget and onwards to Trondheim Airport, Værnes. The company was established and owned by former Busy Bee employees and initially had a work force of fifty.^[1][2] It was based in Bergen, bus later established a technical base in Stavanger.^[3]

From 1 April 1994, the airline also started flying from Bergen to Ålesund Airport, Vigra.^[4] In 1995, the company received its fourth Fokker 50s, and had a revenue of NOK 86.6 million and a profit of NOK 2.9 million. It flew 50 daily services.^[5] In 1996, the airline bid for the public service obligation (PSO) rotues along the West Coast in cooperation with Tyrolean Airways, but lost the tender to the incumbent Widerøe.^[6] NAS wanted NOK 267 million for the routes, while Widerøe only bid NOK 113 million.^[7]

By 1999, the company had six Fokker 50s and flew 500,000 passengeres on 20,000 flights.^[8][3] The company had a revenue of NOK 172 million and a profit of NOK 13 million. NAS submitted a new bid for the PSO routes in 1999, but did not win any.^[9] On 2 June 2000, NAS bought the helicopter operator Lufttransport from Helikopter Service.^[8] In 2000, the NAS fleet was expanded to seven Fokker 50s. The same year, Braathens threatened to terminate their agreements with NAS from 2003, and purchase smaller aircraft themselves for the routes and others.^[3] From 2 January 2001, several Braathens routes were terminated, including the NAS-operated services from Kristiansund to Trondheim and Molde. The routes from Bergen to Haugesund were reduced from five to three round trips, and the Bergen–Molde–Trondheim route was reduced from four to three.^[10] The cuts forced the airline to retire on of its aircraft.^[11]

In October 2001, NAS failed in bidding for the PSO route from Bodø to Røst.^[12] On 2 November, NAS bought the Swedish helicopter operator Ostermann.^[13] On 7 January 2002, NAS took over the responsibility for the route from Stavanger to Newcastle, flying two round trips per day. This was the first route where the airline did not wet lease the aircraft to Braathens, but instead took the risk for the flights. On the same day, Widerøe started a single round trip on the route.^[14]

After Braathens was bought by Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) in November 2001, NAS tried to negotiate a deal where they took over the operations on a permanent basis for their own risk. This was rejected by SAS, who wanted their subsidiary SAS Commuter or Widerøe to take over. NAS had a 18-month cancellation time on their arrangement.^[15]

Low-cost carrier

Boeing 737-300 taxiing to the runway, with Henrik Ibsen fin

Following the decision of SAS and Braathens to merge, NAS announced in April 2002 that it was planning on starting domestic scheduled services as a low-cost carrier on the most trafficked routes. The company stated that this was conditional that the authorities banned frequent flyer programs and hindered SAS from cross-subsidizing routes to underbid Norwegian on those routes.^[16]

From 1 September 2002, the airline rebranded as Norwegian^[17] and started domestic flights as a low-cost carrier with six leased Boeing 737-300 aircraft, on the routes Oslo-Bergen, Oslo-Trondheim, Oslo-Tromsø and a week later on Oslo-Stavanger. For the first few months Norwegian wet leased three aircraft.^{[citation needed]} The company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 18 December 2004, with CEO Bjørn Kjos remaining the largest owner, with about a third.^{[citation needed]} By 2005 the airline made a profit for the first time since 2002.^{[citation needed]}

The airline has opened a second hub, at Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport in Poland, flying to Central European destinations. There are two Boeing 737 operating from Warsaw^[18]. Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA announced 24 April 2007 that they had bought 100% of the Swedish low cost airline FlyNordic; becoming the largest low-cost airline in Scandinavia. As part of the deal with the former owner, Finnair got a 5% stake in Norwegian.^[19]

Boeing 737-8Q8 LN-NOL was the 6000th 737 to be built

On 23 August 2007, Norwegian announced that it would initiate scheduled operations from 18 February 2008 at the new Moss Airport, Rygge south of Oslo,^[20] with the military airport also opening for commercial traffic and located at about the same distance from Oslo as Gardermoen. Norwegian's initial 14 scheduled routes from Rygge are Alicante, Athens, Barcelona, Belgrade, Bergen, Budapest, Istanbul, London, Málaga, Marrakech, Palanga/Klaipeda, Szczecin, Valencia and Warsaw. Norwegian claims flights from Rygge will generally be cheaper than those from Gardermoen.^[21] In February 2008 Norwegian announced their first destination outside Europe, non-stop to Dubai from Oslo-Gardermoen and Stockholm-Arlanda.

After the bankruptcy of competitor Sterling Airlines, Norwegian announced that they would open a new hub at Copenhagen Airport and service the most profitable routes. Flights to Aalborg and Stockholm as well as additional flights to Oslo would start immediately, with flights to London, Amsterdam and Rome to follow "shortly after".

On 30 August 2007, Norwegian ordered 42 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with an option for 42 more, an order worth US$ 3.1 billion^[22]. The planes will enter the fleet between 2008 and 2014, approximately 10 each year. The first 737-800 arrived at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, Norway, on 26 January 2008. It was registered LN-NOB, and has a tail picture of the Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg. Norwegian Air Shuttle ordered winglets on the new aircraft, and it was said the aircraft would be stationed at Moss Airport, though most of its flights operate out of Oslo. The plane made its first scheduled flight on 1 February. LN-NOC, which was the second 737-800 that was entering the fleet, was bought used from Air Europa. A milestone was achieved on April 17, 2009, when Norwegian received LN-NOL, the 6000th 737 ever built.^[23]

Operations

Boeing 737-300 landing.

The Oslo-Trondheim and Oslo-Bergen routes had the highest market share in 2007 with 43%.^{[citation needed]}

The airline has code sharing agreements with Rossiya on the Oslo-Saint Petersburg route.

Norwegian does not own its own handling services and only light maintenance is done by its own employees. Heavy maintenance (C/D checks) and engine maintenance are put out on tender. The airline is a member of European Low Fares Airline Association.

Destinations

Map of Norwegian's domestic routes in Norway

Fleet

As of September 2009, the Norwegian Air Shuttle fleet consists of 3 MD-80 series, 28 Boeing 737-300 and 15 Boeing 737-800.^[24] All the 737-300 have 148 seats in one class and the 737-800 have 189. The MD80s have between 149 and 164 seats.^[24] All but five aircraft are leased. On October 15th 2009 the last Norwegian Air Shuttle MD-80 retired and Norwegian is now only operating Boeing 737.

The aircraft livery is white with a red nose. Some of the aircraft with the Norwegian.no-livery, have a portrait of a notable Norwegian on the tail. The airline has recently announced aircrafts will be featuring notable people from across Scandinavian on the tails moving forward, having secured a position as a leading domestic airliner in both Sweden and Denmark.

Existing Fleet

Historic fleet

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Norwegian Air Shuttle

Links to related articles v • d • e Airlines of Norway Air Norway  · Bergen Air Transport  · Bristow Norway · CHC Helikopter Service · Feel Air  · Lufttransport · Norwegian · Scandinavian Airlines · Vildanden  · Widerøe v • d • e Braathens Companies Atlas Resor • Braathens Aviation • Braathens Helikopter • Busy Bee • Malmö Aviation • Ludvig G. Braathens Rederi • Norwegian Air Shuttle • Saga Tours • SAS Braathens • Transwede History 1946–93 • 1994–2004 • Destinations • Hummelfjell Accident (1956) • Flight 239 (1972) • Flight 139 (1985) People Ludvig G. Braathen • Bjørn G. Braathen • Erik G. Braathen • Arne A. Jensen v • d • e Members of the European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) Clickair · EasyJet · Flybe · Jet2 · Myair · Norwegian Air Shuttle · Ryanair · SkyEurope · Sverigeflyg · Transavia.com · Wizz Air