Nordic airlines Norwegian and Wideroe are planning to work more closely together in several areas after signing a “letter of intent”.
As part of the deal, the two Norway-based airlines will co-operate on ticket sales through an interline agreement to make it easier for passengers to travel across both of their networks.
Norwegian’s CEO Geir Karlsen explained: “Our goal for this collaboration is to benefit both companies’ passengers and our employees. In many ways, this is an historic agreement bringing two Norwegian airlines together.
“A lot of detail is still being worked on but it’s clear from the past months’ discussions with Wideroe that there are many areas we both have a common interest to collaborate on.”
Wideroe is the largest regional airline in Scandinavia with flights to both domestic and international destinations. Norwegian is now concentrating on its short-haul network after coming through a restructuring process which also saw the airline end its transatlantic services.
Stein Nilsen, Wideroe’s CEO, added: “The combination of Wideroe’s network along the coast and in northern Norway and Norwegian’s large European route network will create many new travel opportunities for our common customers.
“This new collaboration has been requested by our passengers for many years, so it is brilliant to share this news now. 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.”